JOHANNESBURG, Dec 15 (AFP) - A blazing row initiated by President Thabo Mbeki over the link between HIV and AIDS erupted this year in South Africa, which harbours the world's greatest number of people infected with the virus.

The argument also pitted Mbeki against mainstream scientific opinion worldwide.

It spilled over into politics, leaving Mbeki more and more isolated -- to the point where even his predecessor, Nelson Mandela, disavowed his views.

Mbeki ended up withdrawing from the public debate at the discreet but firm request of his ruling African National Congress (ANC).

The year should have been a milestone one for the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa, where some 4.2 million people -- a 10th of the population -- were HIV-positive at the end of 1999.

In July, thousands of researchers from around the world descended on the east coast city of Durban for an international AIDS conference.

They had discovered by then, to their consternation, that since April the president had been openly supporting the view of dissident AIDS scientists that HIV has no connection with AIDS. Those dissidents maintain that AIDS, particularly in the developing world, is the result of such factors as poverty, malnutrition and poor hygiene.

Mbeki wrote a long letter to US President Bill Clinton and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in April defending Californian biologist Peter Duesberg, one of the most prominent dissidents.

In it, the president accused unnamed foreign critics of waging a "campaign of intellectual intimidation and terrorism" akin to "the racist apartheid tyranny we opposed".

And, in a letter to the chairman of the AIDS conference, he accused orthodox scientists of acting in the interests of the giant pharmaceutical companies.

He had earlier set up a presidential advisory panel on AIDS, hand-picking about 30 scientists to sit on it, about half of them dissidents.

In response, more than 5,000 mainstream scientists issued a "Durban DeclarationA just before the conference opened there.

It declared flatly that "HIV causes AIDS," and went on: "It is unfortunate that a few vocal people continue to deny the evidence. This position will cost countless lives."

Presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana replied: "If the drafters of the declaration expect to give it to the president, or the government, it will find its comfortable place among the dustbins of the office."

In September, Mbeki repeated his unorthodox views in an interview with Time magazine, and told parliament: "A virus cannot cause a syndrome."

For ordinary South Africans, confusion grew as the debate spread through the media, and social workers said they had to start again at zero to persuade young people to use condoms in a country where AIDS myths abound.

The most destructive, and the most widespread, particularly in rural areas, is the belief that sex with a virgin will cure you.

The government refused, meantime, despite calls by doctors and non-governmental organisations, to supply antiretroviral drugs to expectant mothers to minimise the chances of their babies being born HIV-positive.

Some 5,000 HIV-positive babies are born in South Africa each month.

Concerted pressure via public opinion, Mbeki's political allies in the trade union movement and South African Communist Party, from Mandela and from the ANC itself eventually resulted in a consensus... that Mbeki should keep quiet on the subject.

At the beginning of October, government spokesman Joel Netshitenze announced an awareness campaign based on the premise that HIV does indeed cause AIDS.

He said Mbeki fully supported the campaign, and noted that the president had "acknowledged that his statements (on AIDS) may have caused confusion".

At the end of October, the government decided to extend the number of pilot projects testing the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine as a method of preventing mother-to-infant transmission of HIV.

In December, it signed an agreement with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for the free supply for two years of Flucanozole, a drug used to treat certain opportunistic infections associated with AIDS.

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