Sir Elton John has said the UK Government should be "ashamed" of its record on Aids spending.

The singer appealed to Prime Minister Tony Blair to put more money into fighting the diease.

He said he had voted Labour, but was now angered by the way the National Health Service was being treated.

"They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves," he told Sky News.

"I did vote for them, but I'm disgusted with the way the health service in England is operating, and to someone who is passionate about Aids, every year seeing the amount of aid money allocated to Aids go down is not good."

Speaking in Vienna, where he was attending the fundraising Lifeball event, he said: "I would appeal to the government and Tony Blair especially to say, come on, we had a great record on Aids when it first started.

"That record is now not as good as it was under the Thatcher government.

Knighted

"You should be ashamed of yourselves, you're socialists, or so you're supposed to be."

Sir Elton specifically wants Tony Blair to take action

Sir Elton was knighted under Mr Blair's government at the end of 1997.

The prime minister was also among high-profile figures who sent messages of support when he was named person of the year at a for his fundraising work at a Los Angeles in 2000.

Sir Elton has his own charity, the Elton John Aids Foundation, which is based in Los Angeles and London.

National Aids Trust chief executive Derek Bodell backed Sir Elton's attack, saying: "Sir Elton John raises an important issue as rates of HIV in the UK increase and there is no separately dedicated funding for HIV/Aids.

'Targeted work'

"But while adequate funding for HIV/Aids remains a vital issue, it is also important that money is spent effectively and targeted to those within England who need it most - gay men, people with links to African countries, drug users and people with HIV."

But a Department of Health spokesman said: "Far from being cut, Government funding for HIV and Aids treatment and care has actually increased year on year.

"The NHS has �331 million allocated for HIV and Aids treatment and care this year [in England], up from �289.4 million last year.

"HIV and Aids funding is now part of the NHS's mainstream budgets."