The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Washington

A five-year, $15 billion effort to combat AIDS in Africa and other areas - arguably the most important and popular international program of the Bush presidency - may become a political battleground as it comes up for renewal.

President Bush wants to double and House Democrats want to triple spending on a program that is now treating 1.4 million people, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where he will visit in two weeks.

Democrats also want to slash spending on a multimillion-dollar component that emphasizes sexual abstinence. And that has conservative groups furious.

The president used his State of the Union address this week to repeat a request he first made last May that Congress double global AIDS money to $30 billion over the next five years.

"We can bring healing and hope to many more," he said.

Bush, who will visit Africa in mid-February, gets no argument on that point from advocacy groups or lawmakers in both parties. They've been hailing the program since he first promoted it and Congress passed it in 2003.