<p align="justify"><b style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil won't accept some $40 million (euro30.88 million) in U.S. funding to fight AIDS unless Washington drops a clause condemning prostitution, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.</b></p> <p align="justify">The head of Brazil's anti-AIDS program, Pedro Chequer, sent a letter to the U.S. government last week saying that his country would not accept the money under the conditions imposed in funding agreement.</p> <p align="justify">"We don't accept this meddling because it interferes with our sovereignty. We have our anti-AIDS program and they have their way of fighting AIDS," said a press officer at the Health Ministry who declined to be identified.</p> <p align="justify">The money is part of a funding package from USAID, which allotted $48 million (euro37.06 million) to Brazil for its AIDS campaign between 2003 and 2008. The Health Ministry estimates that $8 million (euro6.18 million) dollars of that money has already been spent.</p> <p align="justify">Brazil has received funding from USAID since 1996.</p> <p align="justify">The Health Ministry said the clause that condemns prostitution -- which is legal in Brazil -- was not in the original agreement signed by Brazil, but was added later by the Bush administration.</p> <p align="justify">Brazil is one of the first countries to oppose the Bush administration's policy of linking foreign aid to policies favored by the religious right.</p> <p align="justify">Brazilian officials said that condemning prostitution represented a serious problem for their anti-AIDS program, which works with many non-governmental organizations that encourage the use of condoms by sex workers -- one of the groups with the highest risk of getting AIDS.</p> <p align="justify">Brazil has made great progress in curbing AIDS by distributing millions of free condoms every year at street festivals like carnival. It also provides anti-AIDS drugs free to anyone who needs them.</p> <p align="justify">About 600,000 of Brazil's 183 million people are infected with the HIV virus.<br /></p>