NAIROBI -- The UN's top AIDS expert in Africa urged rich countries on Thursday to adopt a new strategy and save millions of lives by allowing a drug maker in any one of them to export cheap anti-AIDS drugs to the continent.

Stephen Lewis, who has sharply criticized the West for spending too little on fighting the scourge in Africa, pitched his plea especially to the Group of Seven top industrial powers comprising the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.

He asked such a state to issue a compulsory licence which would lift the patent protection from antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) on the World Health Organization (WHO) list, which could then be manufactured and exported to Africa.

He said the need was urgent in view of a declaration by the WHO this week that the lack of access to ARVs was a global health emergency. The WHO also promised to provide the drugs to three million people with AIDS by the end of 2005. "Its time for one of the major countries, in particular one of the G7 countries, to announce the manufacture and export of generic drugs to Africa," he said, referring to generic cheap copies of drugs. "I would wish it to be my country, Canada, but it really doesn't matter which." Acknowledging that the approach was "somewhat unorthodox", he added: "If the WHO is going to boost treatment in Africa, they will need a fast, reliable, scientifically sound flow of generic drugs in order to keep the prices low at $250-$300 per person per year."

Lewis said the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association has already asked its government for a compulsory license so that it could make drugs for export to Africa.