BEIJING, Dec. 1 — The International AIDS Society will host its 2012 conference in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday on the eve of World AIDS day.

The secretary said the 2012 international AIDS conference “will draw together 30,000 researchers, scientists, policy makers, health care providers, activists and others from around the world.”

“On World AIDS Day, let us renew our commitment to ensuring that those infected and affected by HIV … that all those who have joined together to fight this pandemic will someday live in a world where HIV/AIDS can be prevented and treated as a disease of the past,” Clinton said.

The 2009 conference was held July this year in the South African city of Cape Town. Vienna is due to host the conference in 2010 and Rome in 2011.

Last month U.S. President Barack Obama announced that his administration would lift a decades-old ban on HIV-positive visitors that had been in place since 1987.

Obama said the ban on foreign nationals with HIV/AIDS visiting the United States will effectively be lifted early next year.

The White House also said in a statement that the Obama administration will increase financing to prevent mothers from transmitting the HIV virus to their children next year. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/01/content_12571364.htm