KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- The World Bank signed a credit agreement with Ukraine on a US$60 million loan to help the former Soviet republic combat the rapid spread of tuberculosis and AIDS, officials said Wednesday.

The document was signed Tuesday in Washington by Luca Barbone, World Bank regional director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, and Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Kostiantyn Hryshchenko.

The money will help the cash-stripped Ukrainian government apply a comprehensive prevention, diagnosis and epidemic control program to fight tuberculosis and AIDS. Ukraine will earmark US$21.9 million of its own for the program, said Ukrainian Health Ministry spokeswoman Uliana Lozan.

"The importance of the agreement can hardly be overestimated," said Denis Poltavtsev, manager of the public health program of the International Renaissance Foundation in Ukraine. "The state program on the fight against tuberculosis and AIDS that was adopted before has finally received real financing, followed by the use of advanced methods to treat and prevent the two epidemics."

Ukraine's post-Soviet economic meltdown and the degradation of its state-run health care system have contributed to a swift rise in the number of AIDS and tuberculosis cases.

Officials have registered about 50,000 cases of HIV in Ukraine, and international AIDS experts have warned that the number of cases in the country could rise above 1.4 million by 2010 if no effective measures are taken.

About 670,000 people are now infected with tuberculosis, health officials say. The death rate from tuberculosis has nearly tripled over the last decade.

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