NEW DELHI - Former US president Bill Clinton arrived in India on Wednesday to boost the fight against AIDS and tour the tsunami-ravaged southern coastline as a UN special envoy.
He was dressed in a turquoise blue T-shirt and jeans as he got out of his limousine to enter the Maurya Sheraton Hotel where security has been beefed up for his stay.
"(Former) President Clinton's immediate priorities as special envoy include keeping the world's attention focused on the tsunami recovery in order to ensure that this effort is not forgotten," said a UN statement.
"He will make a field trip to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu state to talk to tsunami victims, focus on temporary shelters and take stock of relief work," a UN official added.
Nagapattinam was the worst hit area in India with over 6,000 people dead from the tsunamis. The December 26 tsunami killed 7,941 people in the state.
More than 16,000 people perished in the tragedy in India and some 273,000 around the Indian Ocean region.
India signed agreements this month with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a 733.5 million-dollar assistance package to help the government rebuild devastated areas. The United Nations is expected to provide a further 38.5 million dollars at a later date.
The three bodies estimated reconstruction costs in the four mainland Indian tsunami-affected states at 1.2 billion dollars.
Clinton, on his fourth trip to India in five years, was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi. He was also due to address a national AIDS conference in New Delhi on Thursday.
Clinton's foundation last month said it would spend an additional 10 million dollars to provide AIDS-suppressing drugs to 10,000 children in countries from India to Africa.
The foundation has persuaded Indian drug manufacturer Cipla to make anti-retroviral drugs for children and provide them at less than half the market price.
The former American president, who spends Friday in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu capital formerly known as Madras, was then due to travel to Sri Lanka's eastern coastal town of Kalmunai on Saturday, diplomats said.
Clinton flies to the Maldives Sunday and on to Indonesia the following day, officials said.
05/25/2005 10:56 GMT