Mozambican Finance Minister Luisa Diogo and the World Bank country director, Darius Mans, signed two agreements on the issue in Maputo Friday.

According to the agreements, some 55 million dollars will go towards preventing the spread of HIV and treating people who are already HIV-positive, while the remaining funds will be used to support the reform of the Mozambican public sector.

Diogo said the Mozambican government wants to use the money to improve its preventive programs and treat the opportunist diseases that invade people whose immune systems have been ravaged by HIV.

The government also wishes to spend the funds on administering anti-retroviral drugs -- particularly to HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent them from passing the virus on to their newborn babies, and to health workers who deal directly with HIV-positive people.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2003)