According to UNAids, the United Nations Aids programme, more than one in three adults is infected with the HIV virus.

Probably half, if not more, of today's natural deaths are caused by HIV/Aids

President Festus Mogae

In his state of the nation address Mr Mogae said he hoped more people would feel able to take HIV tests and destigmatise the disease by feeling able to talk about it.

Earlier this year the government announced plans to introduce a new law compelling HIV carriers to disclose their status to all their sexual partners, and an ambitious counselling programme for the nations 1.5m population.

Nightmare toll

Mr Mogae made HIV and Aids the primary topic of his national address.

"Our people must accept that we have a considerably large number of HIV infected people in our community, that we have large numbers of terminally ill Aids patients among our people and that probably half, if not more, of today's natural deaths are caused by HIV/Aids," he said.

We [must] press on bravely with our information, education and communication against HIV/Aids

President Festus Mogae

Mr Mogae said never before in the history of the country had any president had the misfortune to make a state of the nation address at a time when a killer disease had raised the national human death toll to nightmare proportions.

"We stand at the crossroads of a threat of annihliation of our nation," he said.

Mr Mogae rejected allegations that the Botswanan people were tired of hearing about the epidemic.

"Such insinuations are not only unfortunate but also are shocking in their poverty of knowledge, the knowledge of what is happening and may happen if we do not press on bravely with our information, education and communication against HIV/Aids," he said.

Openness

Mr Mogae's approach will please UNAids officials who were critical of Botswana's suggested legislation.

Botswana has the second highest HIV infection rate in the world

UNAids official David Miller told BBC News Online that the criminalising of behaviour can discourage people from seeking testing and treatment. It can also lead to a climate of silence and fear, driving the pandemic underground.

He said that by far the most effective measures were those that encourage openness and voluntary disclosure.