LAGOS, Dec 3 (AFP) - South African President Thabo Mbeki was badly advised and "made a mistake" with comments on AIDS, former president Frederick de Klerk told a Nigerian newspaper published Sunday.

Mbeki has questioned the orthodox scientific view that HIV is the cause of AIDS and sided with dissidents who claim other factors, including poverty and malnutrition, could also play a role.

He has claimed that HIV, as a virus, cannot cause AIDS, which is a syndrome.

"I really think that he was ill-advised," de Klerk who was in Nigeria for a lecture, told the newspaper The Guardian.

"My understanding of what he is really trying to say is that AIDS is not just a medical problem, but also rampant because of poverty, the state of social services, and I agree with him there," the apartheid-era president said.

"But the way he said it, it was interpreted as if he denied the scientific link between the virus and the illness," de Klerk told the paper.

"I think he made a major mistake in that regard. I understand he is trying to correct that in his latest statement," he added.

Mbeki in October admitted he had caused confusion on the AIDS issue, but has not backed down from his controversial stance.

In remarks last week ahead of World AIDS Day, de Klerk urged African leaders to use the schoolroom to spread knowledge among the young about the dangers of AIDS.

AIDS needed to be defeated by communication and education, he said.

"We must fight AIDS in out 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.

"The lives of millions - if not tens of millions - of the children of Africa are in mortal peril because of the threat of AIDS," de Klerk 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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