ADDIS ABABA, Dec 1 (AFP) - President Negasso Gidada, in a speech on the eve of World AIDS Day, urged Ethiopians to combat the stigma surrounding the disease in their country, among the hardest hit by HIV and AIDS in the world.

"We need to break the silence on HIV/AIDS to protect the public against the pandemic," he said in an address broadcast late Tuesday.

"Persons living with the virus should not be discriminated against," he added, calling on governmental and non-governmental organizations, religious institutions, the media and the Ethiopian people "to join hands in the fight against HIV/AIDS."

Negasso said his government would "support all efforts to arrest the spread of the deadly disease" in Ethiopia. According to UNAIDS figures dating back to June 1988, the country ranked third in absolute terms worldwide, with its incidence of HIV and AIDS among a population of some 60 million.

Accurate figures are very difficult to determine. The spread of the disease in some southern African countries is roughly estimated to have left about a quarter of the adult population sero-positive.

Addis Ababa, in September 1998, issued a general AIDS alert after adopting an emergency plan calling for preventive measures.

"A five-year national programme has been formulated to tackle the socio-economic and psychological problems generated by HIV/AIDS," Negasso said.

A governmental secretariat office and a national council for coordination and implementation are soon to be set up under the program, he said.

Last month Deputy Information Minister Besrat Gashaw said at an AIDS seminar that "much work remains to be done to bring about a change of behavior on the part of the public."

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