NEW DELHI, Nov 10, 2008 (AFP) - The multilateral Global Fund said on Monday that it has approved 2.75 billion dollars in fresh grants over two years to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

With the latest injection, total grants approved by the Geneva-based fund have increased to 14.4 billion dollars in 140 countries, the body said.

"This is the highest amount of new financing approved by the Global Fund ever," Rajat Gupta, chairman of the fund's board said in a statement issued at the end of a two-day board meeting here.

The new funds will help in improving access to AIDS treatment and prevention and help cut deaths from tuberculosis and malaria in half by 2015, Gupta said.

The Global Fund, created by the G8 group of industrialised nations in 2002, accounts for one quarter of all international donations to fight AIDS, two-thirds for TB and three-quarters for malaria.

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