COPENHAGEN -- Hundreds of health officials from across Europe gathered Monday at a World Health Organization meeting here to discuss the link between poverty and health and to debate ways to confront the spread of communicable diseases on the continent.

The summit, which brings together 300 delegates from 51 WHO member states, will present case studies that provide "overwhelming evidence of the close relationship between poverty and ill health," according to a WHO statement.

A WHO European Health Report 2002 concluded that a concerted financial and political commitment was needed in the region to slow the spread of diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Tuberculosis, the world's most infectious disease made especially lethal with a new drug-resistant strain -- has increased by 60 percent in Europe over the past 10 years, AFP quoted WHO as saying.

The world's highest levels of the drug-resistant strain of the disease, which WHO called "a classic disease of poverty," were found in the Baltic states Estonia and Latvia and in Russia.

AIDS also continues to ravage Europe, it said, with around 1.56 million HIV-infected and AIDS cases, up from 420,000 only two years before.

The conference, which will emphasize the "responsibility of health systems to improve the health of the poor," will run until September 19.