Yangon: Australia has decided to offer 15 million Australian dollars (over 11 million U.S. dollars) to a new Myanmar’s Three Diseases (3D) Fund to help the country fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, sources with the Australian Embassy here said on Monday.

The offer by the Australian Government Aid Program (Aus AID) came more than a week after the British government pledged 36 million US dollars to the 3D Fund.

The 11 million U.S. dollars’ Australian donation constitutes part of a 100 million dollars’ joint donor program over the next five years.

The 3D Fund was set up by a group of six donors which also comprises the European Commission, Sweden’s Sida, the Netherlands and Norway in addition to United Kingdom Department for International Development and the Aus AID to compensate for grants which were suspended in August 2005 by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

The Global Fund withdrew from Myanmar, citing the reason that Myanmar imposed travel restriction on its undertaking, impeding the delivery of medical supplies and services.

The 3D Fund is said to be used for providing insecticide- treated nets for malaria prevention, increasing access to TB diagnosis and treatment and promoting condom use and expanded HIV testing.

According to diplomatic sources, more than 300,000 adults in Myanmar were infected with HIV in 2004, accounting for 1.3 percent of the population and 25,000 new infections are estimated each year.

The figures also show that about 97,000 new TB cases and 12,000 TB deaths were registered annually, with malaria standing as one of the main causes of death among children under age five in the country.

Myanmar has designated AIDS, TB and malaria as three major communicable diseases and efforts are being made to combat the three diseases.