US ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella said that over the past six years, Washington has contributed approximately one billion dollars to Zambia's national HIV and AIDS programmes.

"As a result of this partnership and shared vision, the US government contribution for next year totals to 276 million dollars from 2011 to 2015," he said during the signing ceremony here.

Zambia's health sector in Zambia was last year embroiled in financial scandals that led some foreign donors to withhold aid to the poor southern African country.

Storella however said that he was happy that the Zambian authorities moved swiftly to address the financial mismanagement in the health sector.

"It was not the donors that instituted the investigations but the government which is a good step. We support the efforts of the government," Storella said. Zambia, with a population of about 12 million people, has 14.3 per cent of its citizens aged between 15 and 49 years infected with HIV.

Health minister Kapembwa Simbao praised Washington for continuing its AIDs-related assistance despite the global financial crisis and the financial scandals in the health sector.

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