Paris - France's First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is to be named later Monday a special ambassador in the global fight against AIDS.

Bruni-Sarkozy, whose brother died from the disease, will become a special ambassador for the the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international fund-raising organization.

"Of course, I'm particularly sensitive to this issue because of my brother," the 40-year-old former top model told Elle magazine. "But I am generally very sensitive to the cause of fighting AIDS. It's a pandemic. We forget; we are used to it."

Bruni-Sarkozy said she would specifically concentrate on the fight against AIDS in Africa, and the transmission of the HIV virus from mother to infant.

"The situation is very worrisome," she told Elle. "The diabolization of the disease is decisive in its spread, because the women do not let themselves be tested, do not let themselves be treated. They are afraid of being ostracized."

She called the data from Africa "staggering."

"Every day 1,000 children are infected with the virus, and 90 per cent of them through their mothers," Bruni-Sarkozy said. (dpa)