CAPE TOWN, Sept 4 (AFP) - The South African government is in hot water once again over AIDS -- this time for circulating a chapter of a book which claims international conspirators introduced the killer disease to Africa in a bid to reduce its population.

Patricia Lambert, spokeswoman for Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, maintained Monday that the minister had circulated the chapter from William Cooper's "Behold, a Pale Horse" to provincial health ministers as part of a routine exchange of information.

The fact that the minister had passed on the document, which was sent unsolicited and anonymously to the ministry, did not mean she identified with it, Lambert told journalists in Cape Town.

"We've seen pretty odd stuff, and this was some of it," she added.

Cooper claims the Illuminati, an alleged international conspiracy to take over the world, introduced AIDS to Africa in 1978 through the smallpox vaccine in an attempt to reduce the African population.

The minister's spokeswoman was speaking after Sandy Kalyan, a spokeswoman for the main opposition Democratic Alliance, said she was shocked the minister appeared to be taking Cooper's views seriously.

Kalyan said Cooper was responsible for a bizarre conspiracy theory pulling together the assassination of US president John Kennedy, alien invasions and AIDS into a plot by renegade Central Intelligence Agency members to reduce world population.

The distribution of the document follows controversy earlier this year over President Thabo Mbeki's courting of foreign AIDS dissidents, some of whom believe AIDS does not exist, and others who believe it is caused by poverty and poor hygiene, not by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Western Cape provincial health minister Nick Koornhof has urged Tshabalala-Msimang to distance herself from the theory.

Kalyan said the minister's office had also distributed copies of the document to all provincial premiers.

"The minister has not given an indication of her intentions, but it is greatly worrying that this document, which rightly belongs in a rubbish bin, should be distributed with apparently serious intent at a high level," she said.

Lambert said that under the constitution, provincial and national ministers shared responsibility for health issues.

"The minister receives a great deal of information from many sources, which she distributes to the provinces.

"As far as we're concerned there's nothing unusual at all (in this case), because it's part of stuff she routinely sends to the provinces so they can be aware of the kind of stuff that's coming into her office."

Asked if there was any vetting of material being circulated,Lambert said that in the light of the current debate on AIDS, Tshabalala-Msimang sent "everything" on.

"It certainly doesn't mean the minister is persuaded by this theory," Lambert said.

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