CAPE TOWN, Nov 16 (AFP) - South Africa could not afford to dispense the anti-AIDS drug AZT, the health minister said Tuesday, defending government's much-criticised refusal to sanction the drug's use to combat the spiralling epidemic.

It would cost government 10 times the total health budget to administer the internationally used AZT to the estimated four million HIV-positive South Africans, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told parliament.

This would, at current market prices, also be 140 times what was spent on pharmaceuticals in the public sector, she said.

The minister also reiterated controversial statements by President Thabo Mbeki last month that the efficacy and safety of the drug was unproven.

South Africa is researching AZT's ability to reduce the transmission of HIV, including from mother to child, and that of the new, cheaper drug Nivirapine, she said.

There have been widespread calls in South Africa to make AZT available to AIDS patients, rape survivors and pregnant women with HIV to combat the country's high incidence of the disease.

Government statistics in July said one in 11 South Africans are HIV positive.

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