HIV/AIDS advocates will be watching closely the Obama administration's unveiling today of its fiscal 2011 budget.

Last fiscal year, the administration requested a $165 million increase for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Critics fear that US commitments to fighting HIV/AIDS abroad could be scaled back under a proposed broader global health focus. Under the new budget, the administration reportedly retains HIV/AIDS as the top funding priority while adding new funds to reduce maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition and common treatable diseases.

The new health strategy includes working more closely with nations to help them develop their own health care systems, and integrating programs that now focus on specific diseases in order to improve efficiency.

Administration officials had earlier given assurances that Obama's health strategy is not meant to play priorities off each other. Reducing mortality from AIDS, TB and malaria requires stronger health systems in individual countries, experts say.

"This isn't a trade-off; this is a holistic view of health," according to one official, who said the approach is "absolutely consistent with building and strengthening the PEPFAR program." A key part of the maternal and child health focus involves preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, he noted.