Aids babies: paying the price of Aids

The chancellor has hit out at pharmaceutical firms for failing to provide affordable drugs treatments for HIV/Aids in the developing world.

Gordon Brown said the global drugs giants should recognise their responsibilities towards saving the lives of those suffering from the disease.

He called for a rapid settlement of trade negotiations to relax the patent rules to allow developing countries to buy cheap medicines.

The intervention comes as World Trade Organisation talks over the issue continued on Tuesday.

The US is continuing to insist that only the very poorest countries in the world are given preferential status.

"Nobody can stand outside the need for action here and nobody can claim special interests or special privileges when people are dying unnecessarily," Brown told the Guardian.

"It's time that all recognise the responsibilities to help avoid unnecessary deaths and that means we've got to get an agreement for the trade round."

But senior US politicians are said to fear that a radical rethink on drugs pricing could harm the pharmaceutical industry.

Washington appears set to reject a bid by Brazil to import cheap drugs if a "national emergency" is declared.

Brown said he was confident that the US would back moves to reduce drugs costs in countries facing a looming Aids pandemic.

"I think any world where you've got poverty, ill health and disease which is avoidable, standing side by side with what people see as comfort and plenty, cannot be just or stable and therefore Colin Powell is right to say that these are big issues which raise questions about the whole direction of globalisation and we've got to address them," Brown said.

"A failure to act in these areas offends not only basic values, the dignity of individuals and their right to a decent life but also, as clearly Colin Powell is talking about, it affects national interests."