ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Nigeria announced Wednesday it would free HIV-infected inmates and those with other terminal diseases under a plan to cut the country's overcrowded prison population in half.

A Cabinet meeting in the capital, Abuja, had approved granting freedom for very sick inmates and the elderly, Justice Minister Bayo Ojo said. Also to be released are those who have spent as much time in custody as their conviction would require and prisoners whose prosecution has been delayed because of the loss of their case files.

Ojo said such prisoners, who have spent between three and 10 years awaiting trial, make up 65 per cent of the 40,444 inmates now held in 227 prisons across Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of more than 130 million.

"By the time the process is completed, we hope to have reduced the number of inmates to between 15,000-20,000," Ojo said.

A combination of an upsurge in crime and a slow, often-corrupt judicial process has seen a rapid rise in the population of detainees awaiting trial in Nigerian jails over the past two decades.

Human rights groups have reported very high death rates in the overcrowded and unsanitary prisons, where people accused of common crimes can spend more than 10 years awaiting trial.

To speed the prison reduction process, President Olusegun Obasanjo has appointed a chief inspector of prisons and special prison boards comprising law enforcement officials and humanitarian workers, Ojo said.

Under the new plan, inmates in detention for between three and 10 years will have their cases reviewed and freed if deemed appropriate, the justice minister said.

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