Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said here Sunday that nutrition was vital for HIV-infected children in developing countries as malnutrition has made it hard for them to absorb the drugs.

Clinton called for swift actions to lift the pressure of soaring food prices on the countries while speaking of children he saw in Ethiopia on the final day of his four-nation Africa tour that began last week.

They could barely survive because they were so malnourished that they could not absorb lifesaving antiretroviral drugs into their bodies, he said.

"If you look at the rising price of petroleum, the rising price of food around the world, we are all going to have to re-examine how we produce food, where we produce it, how we consume it," Clinton said.

"It's not just a question of energy prices, it's not just a question of global warming. It's a question of how we are going to keep our kids alive," he said.

According to UN statistics, two-thirds of the over-33-million people infected with HIV worldwide live in Africa, where underdeveloped economies and political instabilities have complicated the efforts to contain the deadly virus.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)