CAIRO, Dec 2 (AFP) - The World Health Organisation said Monday that 700,000 people were suffering from HIV/AIDS in the region lying east of the Mediterranean.

The WHO's regional offices in Cairo added in a report on World AIDS Day, marked Sunday, that 80,000 people were infected by the virus in 2001 in the region that stretches from Libya to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to WHO and Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) figures, the number of people worldwide living with the disease was 42 million in 2002, and the total number of new infections was five million in 2001.

The WHO's regional office renewed an invitation to governments to help fight the disease through awareness campaigns.

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