HANOI, Dec 1 (AFP) - AIDS cases are rising fast in Vietnam where the number of people diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has crossed 17,000, the official press said on World AIDS Day Wednesday.

"This epidemic has spread at great speed these last few years. It will become a burning issue for Vietnam in the first years of the next century," said the anti-AIDS national committee vice president Chung A was quoted as saying by communist party organ, Nhan Dan.

Nearly 3,000 of the HIV-positive cases registered developed full-blown AIDS and 1,550 died, A said.

"The figures are an increase over those found in 1998 and we need to put in maximum efforts to deal with this grave situation as Vietnam is situated in a high-risk region of southeast Asia," A said.

Vietnamese television this week spoke of increased AIDS risk from the thousands of HIV-positive prostitutes returning to Vietnam from Cambodia where they worked in recent years.

The number infected with the HIV virus is officially put at between 160,000 and 180,000, with those dying from it expected to reach up to 15,000 by end-2000.

While HIV cases initially spread among drug users, prostitutes and their clients, it now touches all sections of society -- 80 percent are under 30 years of age, health authorities say.

Vietnam's campaigns against AIDS have been hamstrung by a resource crunch.

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