BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: The AIDS epidemic was high on the agenda during talks here in Washington Monday between South African President Thabo Mbeki and United States President Bill Clinton. CNN's White House correspondent John King reports.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First the ceremony, then an immediate effort to calm a controversy clouding the South African president's state visit. Mr. Mbeki denied press reports quoting him as saying the HIV virus does not cause AIDS or that the widely used drug AZT is not effective in combating the disease.</s>THABO MBEKI, PRESIDENT, SOUTH AFRICA: Pure invention. Pure invention.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So your position is what then?</s>KING: U.S. officials had warned Mbeki the controversial statements attributed to him and his government were distracting from efforts to combat Africa's AIDS epidemic.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are hard challenges without easy answers, and they will test our partnership.</s>KING: More than 23 million people across sub-Saharan Africa are infected with the HIV virus. One in 10, or about 4.3 million South Africans, are HIV-positive. By comparison, roughly one-third of 1 percent of the U.S. population is infected, about 900,000 cases of HIV. Mr. Clinton praised a new offer by five pharmaceutical companies to cut the costs of AIDS drugs by 80 percent, but President Mbeki says his country and people still can't afford the medications and that drugs alone are of little use to a poor country without a modern health care system.</s>MBEKI: We also see these challenges in the ever-widening income and development gap between the rich and the poor both within and between states.</s>KING: The vice president toasted Mbeki at a State Department luncheon. (on camera): The South African president will also take time to meet with Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, and he plans a sit-down with congressional leaders skeptical of the administration's request for more money to fight AIDS in Africa. John King, CNN, the White House.
Talks Between American and South African Presidents Focus on AIDS Epidemic