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The United Nations has warned of dangerous consequences after the leader of a tiny West African country declared he can cure Aids. The President of The Gambia says his herbal remedy can kill HIV in his patients' blood. went to meet him and has this exclusive report:

Dressed from head to toe in sparkling white robes, President Yahya Jammeh, leans over his latest patient and massages a herbal ointment into his chest.

The man is HIV positive, but after a few sessions of this treatment:

a rub down with the cream, a splash on the face with another potion and a drink of a murky looking liquid, the President claims he'll be cured.

He's already treated dozens of his people with his traditional medicine, succeeding, he says, where modern medical science has failed.

Sceptics are not welcome.

"Who do I have to convince?" he demanded, jabbing his finger towards me.

"The World?" I suggested.

"I do not have to convince anybody. I can cure Aids and I will not explain it to those who don't want to understand."

The only proof we were shown were photocopied laboratory results which appear to show that some of his patients now have "undetectable" levels of HIV in their blood.

No evidence was provided to show they were HIV positive before the treatment.

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BANJUL, Gambia (AP) - From the pockets of his billowing white robe, Gambia's president pulls out a plastic container, closes his eyes in prayer and rubs a green herbal paste onto the ribcage of the patient, a concoction he claims is a cure for AIDS.

He then orders the thin man to swallow a bitter yellow drink, followed by two bananas.

"Whatever you do, there are bound to be skeptics, but I can tell you my method is foolproof," President Yahya Jammeh told an Associated Press reporter, surrounded by bodyguards in his presidential compound. "Mine is not an argument, mine is a proof. It's a declaration. I can cure AIDS and I will."

In a continent suffering from the world's worst AIDS epidemic, Jammeh's claims of a miracle cure are alarming public health workers already struggling against faith-healers dispensing herbal remedies from inside thatched huts.

The biggest concern is that the Gambian leader requires patients to cease their anti-retroviral drugs, a move that risks weakening their immune systems and making them even more prone to infection, said Dr. Antonio Filipe Jr., head of the World Health Organization in neighbouring Senegal.

Since January, when he announced his cure to a gathering of foreign diplomats, Jammeh has thrown the bureaucratic machinery of this small West African country behind the claim. The last six news releases on Gambia's official website are dedicated to the president's treatment, available to Gambians free of charge. Regular radio and TV addresses publicize it and the Health Ministry has issued a declaration of support.

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