As US President George W Bush proclaims his commitment to Africa during this week's five-day trip, his Republicans in Congress are planning on cutting back the money allocated to his much-vaunted plans to tackle HIV/Aids and encourage development....

Mr Bush has pledged $15bn to fight HIV/Aids, primarily in Africa, over the next five years, and an additional $10bn in additional foreign aid over the next three years in a new Millennium Challenge Account.

But the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee - which determines how much money will actually be spent in next year's budget - looks set to cut back that request when it meets on Thursday.

Representative Jim Kolbe, chairman of the subcommittee on foreign operations, said that in his view Congress would be unlikely to allocate the full amount because neither initiative will be fully operational by the time the fiscal year begins.

The amounts "assume you have full-blown programmes up and running on October 1, and that's not the case," he said....

--BBC

Vermont's Brattleboro Reformer has more:

Bush surprised AIDS activists earlier this year when he authorized $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. But the president has failed to commit himself to a full appropriation in the program's first year.

The budget he sent to Congress gives short shrift to the AIDS fight, coming in more than $1 billion under the $3 billion the president promised, and even that will have to come at the expense of other critical health programs....

The administration's 2004 foreign aid budget is $1.18 billion, more than 17 percent less than last year's $1.4 billion. It proposes $745 million for key global health programs other than AIDS, a 14 percent reduction from last year's $869 million; it slashes disaster relief and emergency food aid by 18 percent; programs to protect child and maternal health and combat infectious diseases other than AIDS by 14 percent; and programs to build free-markets and democratic institutions by 3 percent.

The House version of the budget goes even deeper, reducing the president's spending plan by another $1.7 billion....

"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away...."