UNITED NATIONS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Sub-Saharan Africa is the world's most-affected region, where AIDS remains the leading cause of death, according to a new UN report released Monday.

    Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 68 percent of all adults living with HIV, 90 percent of the world's HIV-infected children, and 76 percent of all AIDS death in 2007, said the report prepared by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

    Worldwide, women represent half of all HIV infections among adults, but 61 percent of those infected are in sub-Saharan Africa, it said.

    The UN agency leading the fight against HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, said Monday that AIDS resource needs for sub-Saharan Africa will stand at about 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 if current rates of scaling up service are to continue.

    At Monday's launch of another report issued by the UN Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, the head of UNAIDS, Peter Piot, said that it is clear that most countries will depend on external funding support for many years to come since such costs cannot be carried along by the budgets of low-income countries in Africa.

    "There is, on the one hand, much good news coming out of Africa when it comes to the fight against AIDS. There are results today, but we still a long way to go. And it's now time to think about sustainability of the efforts, of taking on the long-term challenges in terms of governance, in terms of finance, in terms of impact," Piot said.