SEOUL, Nov 20, 2006 (AFP) - New HIV infections in South Korea rose 13 percent in the first nine months of this year from a year earlier and unsafe sex was mainly to blame, a disease control agency said Monday.

A total of 572 people were newly infected with HIV in January-September compared with 506 cases in the same period a year earlier, the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention said. Of the total, 527 were men.

As of September 4,401 South Koreans had contracted the disease since 1985, of which 806 died.

The agency, announcing plans for a public education campaign, said the country's rate of condom use was only 23 percent in 2005, far lower than 40 to 60 percent in other countries.

It said there was a noticeable increase in HIV infection among those aged 60 and older, with 56 new cases in that age group in the nine-month period compared with 10 for the whole of 2000.

"It points to a gain in the average life span and their continued sexual activity," the agency said.

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