LONDON, Nov 11 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to present a "deeply shocking" report on the AIDS epidemic in African nations to Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Durban, South Africa, from Friday.

"The contents of this report are deeply shocking," Blair said before heading to Durban.

"This is plainly an issue that the Commonwealth must grasp and I will be discussing these findings with my fellow Commonwealth leaders this weekend."

According to the report commissioned by the British government, life expectancy has dropped from the 60s to the 40s in the nine African countries most deeply affected by Acquired Immune Defiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Blair noted that while progress in tackling AIDS had been made in Britain, "the crisis in the developing world is on a completely different scale."

"The impact on human lives is catastrophic and, as this report shows, the impact on societies and economies of many of these countries is also severe," he said.

Blair pledged that Britain would play its part to combat AIDS, which is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV.

"After reading this report, nobody could be under any illusions that the AIDS crisis has gone away. It has not," he said.

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