US President George W Bush urged European nations Thursday to pour more money into fighting malaria, the mosquito-borne illness that kills more people than HIV-AIDS in parts of Africa, DPA reported. The White House-sponsored conference was designed to focus attention on a curable disease that kills more than 1 million people a year, most of them African children under five. Bush touted his pledge to spend 1.2 billion dollars on anti- malaria measures in 15 African countries, saying the illness costs sub-Saharan Africa an estimated 12 billion dollars a year. "We know exactly what it takes to prevent and treat the disease," Bush told the meeting. "Now is the time to act. Allowing Africa to continue on that path is just simply unacceptable." Bush's five-year initiative, launched last year, aims at cutting malaria by half in 15 hard-hit African countries with the help of government and private money from rich countries and aid agencies. "I believe that our country must help and continue to take the lead," Bush said Thursday. "Some of our allies in Europe have committed resources to these efforts, and frankly, they should commit more. This is a global effort to fight malaria," he said. He also urged companies to contribute more money to the effort. Bush said the US-driven programme has reached 6 million people in Angola, Tanzania and Uganda. Senegal, Malawi, Rwanda and Mozambique are to be targeted next year. Bush announced Thursday that Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Zambia, Kenya, Liberia, Ethiopia and Benin are due to join the list in 2008. The conference drew US government leaders, health experts and officials from the region including Boni Yayi, president of the West African country of Benin.
