Germany halts Aids fund payment over corruption claims

Germany is the third-biggest donor to the UN-backed fund, which has an annual budget of more than $20bn (£12bn).

Media reports speculate that billions of dollars may have been siphoned off.

But the Fund said the sums concerned were far smaller and it had "one of the most intensive investigation regimes of any international organisation".

It says the misuse was discovered by its own investigative unit.

A spokesman told the BBC some of the original reporting on the story had been "sloppy" and was based on information which the Fund had not tried to keep secret but had voluntarily released over the past 15 months.

The Global Fund is the biggest single source of money to tackle the three big killer diseases; Kazinform cites BBC News.

To read more see www.bbc.co.uk