TORONTO — Canada and most other members of the G8 are failing to meet their fair share of the cost of financing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global AIDS Alliance said Thursday.

Only France among the exclusive club of the world's wealthiest nations is providing its fair share of the Global Fund's budget, Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the alliance, said in a teleconference held in advance of the 16th International AIDS Conference, which opens Sunday in Toronto.

"Canada is not meeting its commitments,'' Zeitz said, adding Canada's spending of about $250 million this year falls $60 million short of its fair share of the Global Fund's needs.

Other G8 partners are even further off the mark, he said.

There is a belief among AIDS activists that the new Conservative government would rather funnel funding directly to affected countries than pool it with monies contributed by other governments and charitable foundations, said Zeitz.

"It's my sense and the sense of the activists in Canada that we're collaborating with . . . that this government is more keen on focusing its own effort through its own programs rather than working in partnership with an entity like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria,'' he said.

"In general, wealthy governments like to control the money. They like to develop a program and bring it down to the country and plant their flag.''

But having multiple donors, each requiring its own paperwork to ensure funds are being properly spent, puts a heavy and unnecessary burden on the countries receiving the assistance, Zeitz and others said during the briefing.