ABUJA, Dec 1 (AFP) - On the verge of an AIDS crisis, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country is struggling to stop the spread of the disease before it is too late, a top official said Friday.

"We have now developed... a three-year plan. We call it an interim action plan, and a strategic plan for five years is being evolved," Nigeria's national coordinator on HIV/AIDS, Professor Ibironke Akinsete told reporters.

But this was far from an all-out war on AIDS, promised in the past by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

With a much lower prevalence rate than countries in eastern and southern Africa, Nigeria ignored the HIV/AIDS crisis in the rest of the continent for years.

With rates today varying from negligible to 21 percent in different parts of the country, the AIDS situation in Nigeria is more complicated than in most other countries, officials say.

But the infection rate is clearly on the rise.

More than 60 percent of the Nigerian population is under the age of 21 and sexual activity rates are high.

On average a sexually active person has sex four times a week. Condom use is growing but is low.

Overall HIV/AIDS prevalence in Nigeria stood at 1.8 percent in 1991, 3.8 percent in 1993, 4.5 percent in 1995 and 5.4 percent in 1999.

Once prevalence rises over five percent it is considered likely to "generalise" from the high-risk to the general population, AIDS experts say.

Under past military regimes, little was done to counter the AIDS menace and still today most schools refuse to allow AIDS campaigners to mention condom usage to the young.

The most notable single effort in fighting HIV/AIDS comes still from a British-funded humanitarian organisation, Society for Family Health, which is striving to increase awareness and promote condom usage.

Mohammed Farouk, who is living with AIDS, told reporters at a press conference organised to mark World AIDS day, that it was also important Nigerians learn to show show compassion for those with the disease.

"To those of us who are already infected, we need your care, we need your support. When you stigmatise me, I will go back into hiding...and I will infect others," said Farouk, a former soldier.

Farouk, now a campaigner against HIV/AIDS, said he was one of 30 Nigerian soldiers confirmed HIV/AIDS positive on their return from peacekeeping operations last year almost half of whom had since died.

"We are asking you to give us the necessary support, care for us, show compassion. Then a lot of us will be willing to come out to spearhead this campaign," he added.

In a lecture to an audience in Lagos, made public Friday, former South African President Frederik de Klerk, urged all African leaders to use the schoolroom to spread knowledge among the young about the dangers of AIDS.

"We must fight AIDS in our schoolrooms, in our churches and mosques. We must fight it in our villages and in the sprawling shanty towns around our cities. We must fight it in the streets and in the fields," he said.

"Our enemy, alas, cannot at present be defeated by medicines but it can be defeated by communication, determination and passion," he said.

"Education is not only the key to economic growth and development. It is the first requirement in the war against AIDS," he said.

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