The South African government was today ordered to make a key Aids drug available to pregnant women infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

Aids activists who packed the court gallery cheered and hugged each other as Judge Chris Botha read a brief judgment stating that the government had to make the drug nevirapine available to all women giving birth in public hospitals.

The government must also institute a comprehensive programme to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV nationwide, Botha said

Some 200 babies are born HIV-positive every day in South Africa, and studies show nevirapine can reduce the transmission of the virus from mother to child during labour by up to 50%.

But the government had argued the drug's safety remained unproven and that inadequate backup systems were in place to administer it.

The case was the first major legal challenge to government's police on Aids medication.

The German drug company Boehringer Ingelheim has offered nevirapine free to developing countries. South Africa has yet to accept the offer, although it is testing the drug at 18 pilot sites.