CAPE TOWN - South African President Thabo Mbeki opened an international biotechnology centre on Monday that aims to develop vaccines for HIV/AIDS and other diseases that kill thousands of Africans daily. The Cape Town-based branch of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) will focus on infectious diseases including malaria and tuberculosis.

The facility is the third ICGEB centre that targets research at the needs of developing countries. The others are in Italy and India.

Mbeki said biotechnology could play a key role as Africa buckled under the combined pressures of infectious diseases, food insecurity and decades-long under-development.

"This branch of knowledge is making, and will make, a critical contribution in terms of addressing the contemporary and future needs in such areas as health, food and energy security," he said at a ceremony at the University of Cape Town. By focusing on the molecular level of diseases, researchers hope to enhance prognosis and eventually develop vaccines for the three main infectious diseases affecting the continent.

ICGEB services 74 countries. South Africa has committed some 4 million euros ($5.5 million) to the start-up costs of the Cape Town facility over four years.

South Africa is one of the country's hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, with more than five million of its 47 million people estimated to be infected with HIV.