The United States will provide 34 million U.S. dollars to Vietnam's HIV/AIDS prevention program in 2006, local newspaper Youth reported on Thursday.

This year, the United States will offer the aid to Vietnam, the only Asian nation participating in the U.S. President Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief, U.S vice ambassador to Vietnam John Boardman said at the opening ceremony of a nationwide campaign on promoting voluntary HIV/AIDS testing and counseling on Wednesday.

The United States has helped build 50 voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing establishments in 40 Vietnamese cities and provinces over the past five years, he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

According to statistics released by the Vietnamese Health Ministry, the country detected a total of 12,700 HIV carriers last year. It is estimated that as of early 2006, there have been some 260,000 HIV cases, with 103,000 identified.

Vietnam plans to reduce the HIV/AIDS infection rate among its 83-million population to below 0.3 percent by 2010, and keep it unchanged after 2020.

Source: Xinhua