America's planned contribution to the global AIDS fund is around a sixth of what is needed in 2003, according to the fund itself.

Senior development specialists in the Treasury can be counted on one hand. America's government is not even aware of the gap between its commitments and action, because almost nobody in authority understands the actions that would be needed to meet the commitments.

[They] say that they're going to give their child a mutual fund contribution or some kind of gift through a stock investment.

We've planned for tough this year and we weren't disappointed,

Given our enormous contribution to it, it's something I'm hopeful about, but we have other options, and we're going to have to look at all of that now. We have to find a solution to this.

In my view, there is an urgent need to communicate with the public and help to explain where there is consensus, and where are there doubts about the issues of sustainable development.