Brazil intends to distribute 3 billion free condoms every year, mainly to the poor and young, in a bid to prevent the spread of AIDS, the country’s AIDS director said on Wednesday.

The plan to offer universal, free access to condoms builds on the country’s renowned AIDS treatment program, which provides a cocktail of free drugs for patients with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS.

But the effort also faces the potential opposition of the country’s Roman Catholic church, which has said free-condom distribution could encourage promiscuity.

“The contraceptive is mandatory in all non-stable sexual relationships,” said Pedro Checkr, who reassumed authority over Brazil’s AIDS program last week after previously running it from 1996 to 2000.

“The ideal would be to reach 3 billion contraceptives,” he said.

Three billion condoms would be equivalent to 35 for every one of Brazil’s 85 million people considered sexually active. The country has a total population of 175 million.

Handing out free condoms has grown sharply in importance under the country’s program to fight AIDS. It aims to increase distribution among schools in poor areas.

An estimated 600 million free condoms will be handed out this year, up from 20 million in 1995 when the program started, Checkr said. He did not say when the 3 billion figure will be reached.

The campaign has focused on handing out free condoms during Brazil’s annual Carnival celebrations, when casual sex increases.

The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil - the world’s largest Catholic country - has been upset by the distribution of free condoms out of a belief they could encourage promiscuity.

Brazil’s center-left government reacted angrily last year to statements by a Vatican cardinal, who suggested condoms were unsafe to stop the spread of AIDS.

Checkr said the government would give incentives to local condom manufacturers to ensure sufficient supplies.

“If the whole sexually active population were to use contraceptives, there would be no stocks left,” Checkr said. “So it is important to invest in the production of contraceptives to guarantee supplies.”

Brazil’s anti-AIDS program has been acclaimed as a model for the developing world. Its main element of handing out free drugs to patients has been achieved by winning price reductions from big drug firms, sometimes with the threat of making generic copies if companies did not agree to discounts.

Brazil halved the number of AIDS-related deaths since 1996, when distribution of free drugs began.

The government believes there are 600,000 people with HIV/AIDS in Brazil although just 200,000 have been diagnosed.