KOBE -- Confronting the AIDS crisis in Asia must be a matter of political will. But for too many governments, it remains a matter of political won't, U.N. officials warned Saturday at the 7th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

"If national responses remain as they are, we are in deep trouble," said J.V.R. Prasada Rao, director of the regional support team under the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS.

"If nothing changes, 12 million new infections could occur in the Asia-Pacific region between now and 2010," he said.