The promise came in the runup to the 16th International AIDS Conference, opening in the Canadian city of Toronto on Sunday.

The money will be paid in annual amounts of 100 million dollars, with 2006 as the starting year.

"The Global Fund is one of the most important health initiatives in the world today," Bill Gates, the world's richest man, was quoted in a Fund press release as saying.

"The Fund has an excellent track record, and we need to do everything we can to support its continued success, which will save millions of lives."

Gates is to speak at the opening ceremony of the six-day AIDS conference in Toronto, where a record attendance of some 20,000 researchers, public-health experts and campaigners is expected.

The Global Fund was created in January 2002 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to coax funds from governments, business and private donors and channel this money into local projects in poor nations.

Gates, chairman of the software giant Microsoft, kicked off the fund with an initial contribution of 100 million dollars.

He pledged an additional 50 million dollars in 2004, which means that the latest pledge will bring his contributions to 650 million dollars.

His charity -- the world's biggest philanthropic organisation, with an endowment of more than 29 billion dollars -- last month also promised 287 million dollars in research funds for an HIV vaccine, in a separate initiative.

In a teleconference with journalists, Global Fund Executive Director Richard Feachem praised the Gates Foundation for making "a very strong vote of confidence" in his organisation.

"It will help save millions of lives," Feachem said.

He noted that the Gates contribution was only the second five-year commitment to the Fund, after that made in 2003 by the United States, the biggest single contributor. He hoped that Britain would unveil a 10-year commitment by the end of 2006.

But Feachem also warned that the Fund still faced a shortfall of 500 million dollars to meet its funding goals for 2006.

To date, the Global Fund has approved 5.5 billion dollars for initiatives against AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria in 132 countries, according to information posted on its website.

Its needs in 2006 comprise 1.1 billion in new funding, as well as 1.8 billion in funds for initiatives that have already been launched. The Fund's board wants to approve the new funding, known as the Sixth Round, in November.

Fifty-five percent of the fund is spent on AIDS, with the rest for TB and malaria. Sixty percent of all funds go to Africa, the worst-hit continent.

According to an estimate made in May by the UN agency UNAIDS, 8.9 billion dollars is likely to be committed to the fight against AIDS, from all sources, in 2006.

This compares with a mere 1.6 billion dollars in 2001, but also with needs in 2006 of 14.9 billion dollars, of 18.1 billion dollars in 2007 and 22.1 billion dollars in 2008.

"Looking beyond 2007, an effective response will depend on sustained growth in annual funding until the epidemic is stopped and reversed," UNAIDS said in its 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.

At the end of last year, 38.6 million people were living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), UNAIDS estimates. Around 4.1 million people became infected in 2005.

HIV destroys key white cells in the immune system, exposing the body to opportunistic disease, a condition called acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

AIDS has killed more than 25 million lives since it first emerged as a disease in 1981. In 2005 alone, it killed 2.8 million people.

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