TEHRAN, Dec 10 (AFP) - An Iranian father chopped up his 23-year-old son with an axe after finding out that he was infected with the deadly HIV-virus which causes AIDS, newspapers reported Sunday.

According to the Kerman-e Emrouz daily, a local paper published in the southeastern Kerman province, the raging father, whose identity was not revealed, attacked and brutally killed his drug-addicted son with an axe last week.

The young man, said to have come from a prominent local family, had infected himself with the deadly virus via intravenous drug use while serving time in a Kerman prison for a drug-related offence.

Drugs, notably opium, are easily found in poorer cities like Kerman where authorities are fighting to control increasing drug trafficking and addiction.

In late November, officials from Iran's health ministry announced that some 10,000 Iranians are believed to be infected with the HIV virus, while official statistics put the figure at just 2,207 registered cases of HIV-positive people.

During the same month, officials here also announced that they had banned tattooing in a bid to control the "time bomb" of the fatal virus.

"There is a time bomb ticking in Iran and we have to take it seriously," Health Minister Mohammad Farhadi had said at a Tehran conference ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1.

Intravenous drug use accounts for 65 percent of HIV infections in Iran, according to official statistics.

Iran is a major transshipment point for narcotics coming from neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan destined for the markets of Europe, central Asia and the Gulf.

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