TORONTO - Canada's commitment to the global fight against HIV-AIDS remains woefully inadequate, says a coalition of advocacy groups, marking the one-year anniversary of the international AIDS conference in Toronto.

The Canadian Coalition for Youth and HIV-AIDS in Africa, which includes the country's chapters of CARE, Plan, Save the Children and World Vision, called on the federal government Friday to step up funding for programs to battle the pandemic that has killed 25 million people and infected 40 million more since 1981.

Stephen Lewis, former UN envoy for AIDS in Africa, said that while the number of people receiving antiretroviral drugs to control their infection has risen in the last year -- to 2.2 million from 1.6 million a year ago -- "we are losing the battle against the virus."

For every person who began such treatment in 2006, another six people contracted HIV, he said.

"AIDS is a vexing catastrophe in Africa and a looming ominous presence in China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. This is not a virus that will go away."

Millions of people are desperate for treatment but still have no access to life-sustaining antiretroviral medications, said Lewis. "Many of them die. All of them who die will die unnecessarily."

Canada, he said, has not responded robustly enough to the global health crisis, which is decimating communities and families in developing countries, leaving 14 million children orphaned.

"Where is Canada? Where is Canada's voice? Why are we sonambulent on these issues?" Lewis asked.

"What we need is a government with a voice that spends rather less money on defence and armaments, whether it's Afghanistan or elsewhere, and rather more money on the human condition. And that requires leadership from the present government, which frankly does not exist."

In an e-mail, Richard Walker, a spokesman for International Co-operation Minister Josee Vernier, countered that the government is "playing a leadership role in ensuring a comprehensive and intergrated global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic" by providing about $190 million a year.

The last federal budget, earlier this year, reaffirmed the government's commitment to double overall international assistance from the 2001 level by 2010, the e-mail stated, bringing Canada's international assistance to $4.4 billion by 2008-09.

Last year's federal budget provided $250 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, bringing Canada's total commitment to the fund to $550 million, Walker said in the e-mail.

Dave Toycen, president and CEO of World Vision Canada, said Ottawa has a chance to "get back on track" at next month's meetings to discuss replenishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Last year, Canada contributed $200 million in funding, Toycen said, "but we need to do a whole lot more."

"We are calling on Canada to provide five per cent of the requirements of the Global Fund," Toycen said. "That's our fair share. It's about $900 million over the next three years, and we want 12 per cent of that prioritized towards children."

Sarah Hendriks of Plan Canada said children and young adults are among those most affected by HIV-- AIDS.

More than 10 million young people are living with the disease, she said. Half of those newly infected each year are under 25.

"And every single day - including this day, Aug 10, 2007 -- 5,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 will become infected with HIV."

"These are incredibly mind-numbing statistics. And yet they are very real statistics."

David Morley, president and CEO of Save the Children Canada, agreed that efforts need to be focused on children and youth, particularly in hard-hit Africa, "because they're the most vulnerable."

"They have inherited this whirlwind from the past quarter-century and Africa is theirs to rebuild," he said. "It is supporting children and youth who are the agents of change . . . and we need more people helping them."