Stellenbosch: Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has heatedly denied a British newspaper article that quotes her as saying South Africa cannot afford anti-Aids drugs because money is needed to buy submarines to deter a possible US attack.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Tshabalala-Msimang had said the health department could not provide anti-retroviral drugs to the estimated 4.5 million South Africans with HIV.

"We don't have the money for that. Where would it come from?" Tshabalala-Msimang was quoted as saying.

Asked if it could come from the money earmarked for the submarines which form part of the multi-billion arms deal, Tshabalala-Msimang reportedly said South Africa needed to deter aggressors: "Look at what Bush is doing. He could invade."

Tshabalala-Msimang said in an interview yesterday that her statements had obviously been taken out of context.

She claimed that she had not been formally interviewed by the Gaurdian reporter but that they were chatting about the possibility of a future interview.

The health minister said she had never made the remark about a possible US attack and that it had, in fact, been the reporter who had raised the Bush issue.

"I said that Bush is coming to SA next year when the SA-US bi-national commission meets. If he is coming to South Africa why would he be thinking of invading us?" she said yesterday.

Tshabalala-Msimang admitted that she had said South Africa needed submarines to defend its long coastline.

She did not state categorically that she had been misquoted.

On her reported statements that South Africa could not afford to provide anti-retrovirals to about 4.5 million people, Tshabalala-Msimang said she "never put it that way".

"There is a particular phraseology that we use - that we don't have resources because the medicines are so expensive and we do not have enough infrastructure to monitor them."

She said she had no "ideological opposition to anti-retrovirals ... but they are very costly and South Africa does not have adequate facilities to monitor provision of anti-retrovirals in the public sector according to international standards."

Tshabalala-Msimang said that in the public health sector "where we are responsible for the poor", the government did not want to expose them to potentially harmful drugs "that we really can't monitor".

The Cape Times reported yesterday that the minister had not yet signed an agreement reached at the National Economic Development Labour Council, the forum where intensive discussions had been held for several months between the government, labour and business about an HIV/Aids plan that includes anti-retrovirals.

She dismissed this report but did not want to elaborate. - Political Bureau

With acknowledgements to Andre Koopman and The Cape Times.