The World Health Organization has vowed to meet the United Nations' goal of giving anti-HIV therapy to three million patients around the world.

　　Head of the WHO's HIV/AIDS department, Jim Yong Kim, says the UN body is unlikely to achieve the goal by the year-end deadline. But he vows to continue fighting the disease by administering antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

　　Kim made the remarks at an International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Kobe, Japan.

　　As of the end of June, an estimated one million people had received the treatment, falling short of the target of 1.6 million.

　　In late 2003, WHO and the United Nations launched the so-called "3 by 5" strategy to ensure antiretroviral therapy for 3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries by the end of 2005.

　　The therapy is said to stop or delay the virus that causes AIDS.

　　The UN estimates 39.4 million people were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide at the end of 2004.