GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations Wednesday welcomed an exemption for its emergency AIDS relief programme from the United States’ foreign aid funding freeze, saying it would “restore hope” to millions living with HIV.

On returning to office last week, US President Donald Trump signed an order temporarily suspending foreign aid programmes for 90 days pending reviews of their funding.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio then froze virtually all assistance funding, but on Tuesday widened exemptions, saying Washington would keep funding core life-saving medicine and medical services.

The latest waiver appeared to give the go-ahead for funding for medication under PEPFAR, a major US programme against HIV/AIDS.

Established in 2003 under former president George W Bush, PEPFAR is credited with saving some 26 million lives.

The United Nations’ UNAIDS agency said more than 20 million people living with HIV — two-thirds of all the people living with HIV receiving treatment globally — were directly supported by PEPFAR.

Calling PEPFAR the world’s leading HIV initiative, it said the decision would allow people to keep accessing US-funded HIV treatment in 55 countries.

“UNAIDS welcomes this waiver from the US government which ensures that millions of people living with HIV can continue to receive life-saving HIV medication during the assessment of US foreign development assistance,” said UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima.

“This urgent decision recognises PEPFAR’s critical role in the AIDS response and restores hope to people living with HIV.”

PEPFAR buys anti-retroviral drugs to treat the disease in developing countries, largely in Africa.

UNAIDS said it had encouraged Trump to prioritise Washington’s leadership in the global HIV response to achieve the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.