BASSETERRE, St Kitts (AP) - A Caribbean HIV/AIDS conference got under way in St Kitts as the United Nations released a new report yesterday saying that the number of women living with AIDS has increased in every region of the world.

The Caribbean continues to be the second worst-affected region in the world after sub-Saharan Africa, according to a joint UN and World Health Organisation report called AIDS Epidemic Update 2004.

Women now comprise nearly half of the 37.2 million adults between ages 15-49 living with HIV worldwide, the report says. The number of people infected with HIV around the world has also reached its highest level with an estimated 39.4 million, up from 36.6 million in 2002.

The three-day conference in the former British colony was co-sponsored by the 15-member Caribbean Community, the British government and one regional health agency.

In the Caribbean, 2.4 per cent of the population, or an estimated 500,000 people, have been infected with HIV/AIDS.

The Caribbean figures exclude Cuba, which has a relatively low rate due to testing and prevention programmes.

In the region, women are twice as likely to be infected as men, the United Nations reported. Trinidad and Tobago, with 1.3 million people, has an HIV infection rate of more than three per cent.

In 2002, US President George W Bush launched a US$15-billion programme to fight AIDS, mainly directed toward 14 African countries. Haiti and Guyana are the only two Caribbean countries receiving US funds.

The US funds come with a series of strict requirements - one-third of the money earmarked for prevention goes to abstinence-first programmes. Also, the money currently can only buy brand-name drugs made by companies in wealthy countries, shutting out cheaper generic medicine from countries such as India.