WINDHOEK, Dec 1 (AFP) - Namibian prison authorities are refusing a health ministry directive to distribute condoms despite a 23 percent HIV infection rate in the country's jails, parliament heard.

Junior prisons minister Jeremiah Nambinga told parliament Thursday he considered sodomy a crime, local media reported Friday.

Health Minister Libertine Amathila told parliament she had ordered all appropriate ministries to distribute condoms in a bid to reduce Namibia's HIV rate, estimated at 21 percent nationwide among adults.

But Nambinga, a noted gay-basher, said his ministry was not obliged to keep to the official directives.

He demanded to know why Amathila wanted condoms distributed among inmates, as men and women were separated.

"We also keep close guard on the inmates when they go and work outside to prevent them from sexual contact with outsiders, so if a prisoner falls in love there is no chance for him to mate with another," Naminga was quoted as saying by the daily newspaper the Namibian.

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