In an effort to salvage at least one of the international community's goals to fight HIV/AIDS, the World Health Organisation renewed its commitment to treat three million patients in poor countries by 2005.

A report released on Monday said the world has made dismal progress in combating the pandemic since the first AIDS summit two years ago.

Failures abounded on numerous fronts, including expanding access to lifesaving drugs, caring for AIDS orphans, and blunting mother-to-child transmissions of the disease.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, opening a special session of the UN General Assembly on the fight against AIDS, said the disease had slipped from political agendas, and goals to reduce the epidemic would not be reached because of the inadequate financial and political response.

"We are not on track to begin reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005," Annan told the gathering of 191 nations.

Without additional money and political will, it is unlikely the goals of having 3 million HIV-positive people in the developing world taking AIDS drugs by 2005 and halting and reversing the epidemic by 2015 will be met, experts said.

The new Director-General of the WHO, Dr Lee Jong-Wook, said the organisation was developing a plan to deliver drugs which included sending experts to the worst affected countries, creating simplified treatment regimens and building infrastructure. However, he was not sure of the cost or sponsors.

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