The "Choice" condom in a new blue and yellow 10-sheath pack replaces the former no-name strip of condoms that had been distributed in South African clinics and health care centers since 2000 to promote safe sex.

"We realised that we needed to change the way we market government condoms to maximise their impact," Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told a news conference at a condom plant outside Johannesburg.

The new re-packaged condom was launched after studies showed that South Africans considered the government-issued sheaths as unreliable and of poorer quality than pharmacy-bought brands.

The health minister is also attacking head-on the perception that sex is better without a condom.

"You can still enjoy sex with a condom," Tshabalala-Msimang said. "Actually, it's much more enjoyable."

"Condoms should not only be a necessity but should be seen as sexy and part of fun," she asserted.

Rubbing her fingers, the health minister added: "They are lubricated, so it's nice...."

Tshabalala-Msimang toured the Kohrs medical supplies factory, which produces the Choice condom, and took part in the quality control process by testing the latex sheathes with a specially designed machine.

South Africa has more people living with HIV and AIDS than any other country in the world: 5.3 million, or one in nine.

The pandemic is expected to affect one in four South Africans by 2010, the year South Africa hosts the World Cup, an event billed as an opportunity to showcase achievements.

Tshabalala-Msimang linked the condom campaign's slogan of "No choice, no play" to the World Cup extravaganza.

"2010 - you won't be there if you don't make the right choice," she said.

Some 400 million condoms will be distributed this year, mostly to young South Africans as part of its prevention campaign.

The government is also spearheading a national program to make anti-retroviral drugs available free to 50,000 AIDS sufferers by March 2005, although drug shortages could scuttle the deadline.

A trained physician, Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticised for advocating a quirky diet of beetroot, spinach, garlic and olive oil to combat AIDS, which activists say kills approximately 600 people a day in South Africa.

TERRA.WIRE