DHAKA, Dec 25 (AFP) - Bangladesh will introduce sex education in its schools from 2004 in an effort to stem the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, a top official was quoted saying Wednesday.

"Sex education will be included in the school syllabus in 2004 under population studies courses," Bangladesh Today newspaper quoted Education Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Alam saying.

"With the alarming rise in incidences of sexually transmitted diseases and emergence of (the) AIDS pandemic, sex education has come to the forefront," he said.

Sunity Achariya, the United National Population Fund representative to Bangladesh, said young Bangladeshis "should be given proper sex education".

"The children and adolescents are receiving wrong sex education from the Internet, pornographic books and commercial sex workers," she said.

While Bangladesh has only a few hundred officially reported AIDS cases, social workers warn that premarital sex is prevalent in the predominantly Muslim country but that young people are ill-informed about the precautions they should take.

According to government figures released this year, 248 people in Bangladesh have contracted HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, and 20 people have died from disease.

UN estimates put the number of HIV patients at about 13,000, which is still far below neighbouring India, where at least 3.97 million people have HIV, more than any country other than South Africa.

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