SINGAPORE, Dec 3 (AFP) - Singapore has lifted a rule requiring that people who die of AIDS must be buried or cremated within 24 hours, the Sunday Times reported.

Families of AIDS victims now have three days to hold a funeral, following a successful lobby by the Action for AIDS organisation.

"We are delighted with the change as the new regulations are in accordance with international practices," a spokesman for the group told the newspaper.

"This will contribute significantly towards alleviating the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS," the spokesman said. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)

Action for AIDS had lobbied for the removal of the rule, arguing it was drawn up in the mid-1980s when there was little knowledge about the incurable disease that weakens the body's defence system and is almost always fatal.

Singapore's health ministry however has set strict guidelines for the handling of AIDS-related deaths, including the use of bodybags for unembalmed corpses and sealed coffins.

Embalming by a selected group of experts must be carried out at the isolation mortuary of the department of forensic medicine.

Activists said Friday that a growing numbers of AIDS sufferers in affluent Singapore are being left homeless and without treatment because of discrimination.

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