Geneva  - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will visit AIDS programmes in Burkina Faso on Wednesday, during her first trip as Global Ambassador for the protection of mothers and children against AIDS.

She received the position from the Global Fund last December, on World AIDS Day.

Nicolas Demey, a spokesman for the organization, said it was financing almost 45 million dollars worth of projects in the African nation, where 130,000 people are living with HIV or AIDS.

The fund is a mechanism for raising money to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and has close ties to the United Nations.

Bruni will view a centre in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou where people can get tested for HIV and she was also scheduled to visit women and children living with the disease.

Much of the fund's work in the African nation, Demey said, went to preventing the passing on of HIV from pregnant mothers to their foetuses, allowing the children to grow up, hopefully, disease free.

Bruni was scheduled to leave Paris on Tuesday for the one-day trip. dpa