Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argues that AIDS funds are not the best use of international health funding.

Joe Tarver, the group's spokesman, said it raised the issue of AIDS funds with Mr. Pataki in a 2001 meeting.

When the recession hit, AIDS funds and staffing did not rise so quickly as the epidemic, which by June 30 reached 61,082 cases with 42,567 deaths.

The Millennium Challenge Account and the AIDS fund can serve as models for future reforms in foreign aid, he said.

He said recent increases in the library's AIDS funds would allow it to offer the service free.

The White House has requested a $100 million increase, to $342 million, in international AIDS funds in the 2001 fiscal year budget.

The quest for AIDS funds has also been crimped by the state's oil bust, real estate crash and banking collapse.

But the AIDS fund will be supplying very few people with medicine in its initial phase.

I advocate a very substantial provision in the budget over the coming years for the AIDS fund, without detriment to present provision for poverty relief.