PARIS, Dec 1 (AFP) - Several French groups used World AIDS Day Sunday to call on authorities to draw public attention to the growing number of women afflicted with the disease or its precusor, HIV.

"Because of their anatomy, their physiology, their socio-economic situations and the norms that exist in relationships between men and women, the latter are much more at risk from HIV contamination," the groups, which included Act Up, the French Movement for Family Planning and the AIDS Information Service, wrote in a joint statement.

The statement noted that, while five men for every woman were diagnosed with AIDS in the 1990s, last year the ratio was 2.8 men per woman -- and that in the first six months of 2001, 62 percent of people aged 15-29 who discovered they were HIV-positive were girls or women.

The groups demanded targeted national advertising campaigns for women, grants to finance some of their operations, better access to female condoms, more training for gynecologists and counselling for HIV-positive women.

In an associated event, French President Jacques Chirac met representatives from several of the groups for general talks about AIDS and the progression of the disease in France and in the world.

Acknowledging a "difficult" situation, Chirac said: "We have to rapidly mobilise, in terms of information, prevention, in terms of treatment, and in integrating victims into society."

He added that better international cooperation had to follow, particularly in terms of getting AIDS medicines into Africa.

There were 56,000 people living with the disease in France, the groups told Chirac.

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