Accra, May 16, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor has identified communication as the most powerful weapon that must be brought to bear on the fight against the HIV-AIDS pandemic as Ghana makes progress in reducing the spread of the infection through education.

The rate of the infection, he said, had now come down to 2.6 per cent from 3.1 per cent in 2005. Two years ago, it was 3.6 per cent. "The educational aspect of the fight is winning", President Kufuor said when he received an American delegation led by Mr J.C. Watts, a former Congressman, at the Castle, Osu on Tuesday.

They are part of the Gospel Communication, a group that is relying on the use of the Gospel as a powerful tool for fighting the pandemic. President Kufuor said through the help of the United States Government and some international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), they were doing everything to facilitate the distribution of Anti Retroviral Drugs to people living with HIV.

He told the group that all doors would be opened to them across the country as they carried out their campaign.

Mr Watts said they had been working through indigenous firms and organisations to inspire and inform on issues of the HIV-AIDS. He said in Ghana, they would join forces with the Education, Science and Sports Ministry and the Ghana AIDS Commission, to resource them to help to remove the stigma associated with the disease. He said they appreciated President Kufuor's leadership in the crusade against the pandemic, saying, they were proud of him.