BEIJING - China will probably face a reduction in payments from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, with a revised budget to be released in a couple of weeks, a source close to the situation said.

Discussions about details, such as the exact amount of the deduction, are still under way between the two parties, Mark Stirling, country coordinator of the UNAIDS China Office and a member of the China Country Coordinating Mechanism for Global Fund Programs, told China Daily on Thursday.

"But I think a cut of up to 50 percent, as reported by some Chinese media, is too dramatic and much more than I expect," he said.

The Beijing Times quoted an unnamed source on Thursday as saying that the grant would be cut by more than 50 percent.

On August 23, the Geneva-based foundation lifted a temporary freeze on grants to China imposed in May, which cited reasons such as suspected misuse of funds and a lack of government support for the Global Fund's anti-AIDS program.

Han Mengjie, executive director of Global Fund China Programs, said: "A number of our anti-HIV/AIDS programs have been affected due to the payment freeze and we are still holding talks with them in an attempt to maintain the grants as before."

Since 2003, the Global Fund has disbursed $548 million to China in grants and has planned future funding of $680 million, statistics from the Ministry of Health showed.

Programs financed by the foundation have to date extended to two-thirds of Chinese counties and covered tens of thousands of sufferers and those at high risk of being infected with the disease.

But the Chinese government still finances 80 percent of the nation's overall work to contain HIV/AIDS, Stirling said.

He added that community-based organizations would be most seriously affected by the grant reduction.

Thomas Cai, director of AIDS Care China, a Guangzhou-based non-government organization supporting sufferers and their families, said he worried that other international foundations might follow the Global Fund's example and cut or even stop financial support to grassroots societies combating AIDS in China.

"We might face greater difficulty landing funding in the future," Cai said.

Internationally, however, critics have said that China, as the world's second-largest economy, should no longer receive grants to fight AIDS/HIV.

In response, Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS executive director, told Reuters that it would be a big mistake for a donor and, particularly, for anyone who had already provided funds in China, to withdraw, because this funding acts as a catalyst to attract further support.