Governments across the globe pledged Monday to step up the fight against HIV, promising to bankroll treatment programmes on the 20th annual World AIDS Day.

Outgoing US President George W. Bush marked the occasion by highlighting his efforts to battle the deadly disease, particularly in Africa.

He announced that his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or "PEPFAR," had already met its goal of helping to treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2008.

"PEPFAR is bringing hope and healing to people around the world. On our trips to Africa, Laura and I have witnessed first hand the gratitude of the African people," Bush said.

The White House says that just 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving life-saving anti-retroviral treatment when the program was born in 2003.

In South Africa, the country with the highest number of sufferers in the world, the government was mapping out its AIDS strategy under a new health minister as part of a sea-change in attitudes.

South Africans held a moment of silence at midday as a mark of respect for victims of the virus which has affected some 5.5 million people.

Newly appointed Health Minister Barbara Hogan Monday promised to "urgently scale up" mother-to-child prevention programmes and urged men to test for HIV, the virus that can lead to full-blown AIDS.

"We encourage all men, I repeat all men, to test themselves for HIV to protect themselves and the people they love," Hogan said. "We all know that together we shall overcome."