Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday reiterated Catholic church teachings to several new African envoys to the Vatican, maintaining that AIDS must be fought through marital fidelity and sexual abstinence.

Benedict's remarks came just over two months after a furore arose over comments he made on the disease during his first visit to Africa.

On the papal plane taking him to Cameroon, Benedict on March 17 appeared to suggest that the use of condoms, which the Catholic Church considers sinful, may actually contribute to the spread of AIDS.

France's Foreign Ministry responded at the time by saying that the comments by the spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics threatened public health policies.

On Friday, the pontiff told South Africa's new ambassador to the Holy See, George Johannes, that the church "takes seriously her part in the campaign against the spread of HIV/AIDS by emphasizing fidelity within marriage and abstinence outside of it."

Similarly, Benedict told Namibia's new Vatican ambassador, Neville Melvin Gertze, that he was aware that one of the priorities of the southern African nation's government is put more of a focus on the health of the population, especially people afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

"In this area, the church will continue to offer its assistance willingly. She is convinced that only a strategy based on education to individual responsibility in the framework of a moral view of human sexuality, especially through conjugal fidelity, can have a real impact on the prevention of this disease," Benedict said.

Some 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

In 2007 three-quarters of the world's AIDS deaths were in sub- Saharan Africa, as were two-thirds of all people living with HIV.(dpa)