OVIEDO, Spain, Oct 26 (AFP) - A vaccination against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, could be found in about seven years, the two scientists who discovered HIV said in Oviedo on Thursday.

The two men, the American Robert Gallo and the Frenchman Luc Montagnier, were in the northern Spanish city to receive the country's prestigious Prince of Asturias prize for Scientific and Technical Research.

Dr Gallo said no one could be sure how the vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) will be made or when it will be found.

However he said, given the current rate of research, there was hope that a combination of drugs that would improve the life of people with HIV could be found within five years, with a definitive vaccine coming in seven.

Montagnier said he was optimistic a vaccine that would constitute the first step towards a universal treatment could be found in the near future.

The two men said there were several serious candidates who could discover a vaccine, thanks to the great progress made in recent years.

Dr Gallo's team at the University of Maryland has been working with Dr Montagnier's research department at Paris's Pasteur Institute to discover a vaccine based on transactivator (TAT) proteins, which are essential for the virus to reproduce.

The two also said their row over the discovery of HIV was now history, and that they were cooperating and in constant contact.

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