U.N. Group Sets Compromise on AIDS Policy

The contentious negotiations were led by the U.N. ambassadors from Thailand and Barbados and featured many countries acting as blocs.

Numerous African nations agreed earlier this year in Abuja, Nigeria, to push for a common position -- that 80 percent of pregnant women have access to drugs preventing transmission of the virus to their infants, that 80 percent of the population have access to testing and that 80 percent of infected people needing antiretroviral drugs get them, among other goals.

The Africa Group, however, fractured with the defection of Egypt and South Africa from that position and by the alliance of Gabon with several Islamic countries in opposing language in favor of the "empowerment of girls." This helped doom the naming of goals.

"The continent that is most ravaged by AIDS has demonstrated a complete lack of leadership. It is a sad, sad day as an African to be represented by such poor leadership," Omololu Falobi of the African Civil Society Coalition said in a statement released at the end of the meeting.

The Organization of the Islamic Council, a bloc of many Islamic countries, opposed even using the term "vulnerable groups" to describe sex-industry workers, gay men and drug users. The Rio Group of South American countries favored naming them. An American official familiar with the negotiations, who demanded anonymity to describe confidential discussions, said the U.S. delegation had no strong position on the matter.

The phrase "vulnerable groups" appears several times in the final document, and the declaration also contains references to specific materials that the people at risk need to protect themselves: "male and female condoms and sterile injecting equipment."

The document asserts the importance of "harm-reduction efforts related to drug use" -- a reference to needle-exchange programs, which the United States has opposed as a matter of policy under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Some activist groups, however, wanted the declaration to go further and criticized it for not mentioning "substitution therapies" for opiate addiction, such as methadone.

Yesterday's General Assembly began with a speech from Laura Bush, who praised her husband's $15 billion, five-year global AIDS plan, including its effort to train health-care workers in affected countries. Many have been leaving for higher-paying jobs abroad.

The first lady also put in a plug for literacy, one of her personal causes, calling it especially important "for women and girls, so they can learn to make wise choices that will keep them healthy and safe."

The meeting featured a cavalcade of prime ministers, presidents and one king, Mswati III of Swaziland. More than 140 people spoke.

For the first time in its history, the General Assembly divided itself in half and had people speak simultaneously in two rooms in order to fit their speeches into one day.