The increase in the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) would provide lifesaving treatment to 2.5 million people, administration officials said Tuesday night — some 1.4 million more than are currently served by the program.

The program’s original five-year mandate, which provided for US$15 billion in U.S. funding, expires in September 2008. Bush’s plan would extend that for five more years.

Bush will issue his request Wednesday afternoon, the officials said, during a Rose Garden ceremony where he is scheduled to be joined by supporters and beneficiaries of the program, including a caregiver and an AIDS patient. At the same time, the president will announce that first lady Laura Bush will travel to Africa in late June and visit AIDS-related services funded by the program in Zambia, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal, officials said.

Bush’s announcement comes in a week when he is highlighting his administration’s commitment to international development and human rights protections, both of which will be major items for discussion next week when he joins other world leaders at a Group of Eight summit meeting in Germany

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