Gere Fears AIDS Epidemic Hitting India

NEW YORK (AP) _ As President Bush prepares to travel to India this week, Richard Gere is applauding the leader's focus on the AIDS crisis there. <br/><br/>Gere may not agree with Bush on everything,

Monday, February 27th 2006, 9:27 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ As President Bush prepares to travel to India this week, Richard Gere is applauding the leader's focus on the AIDS crisis there.

Gere may not agree with Bush on everything, but he ``certainly can praise him'' for mentioning HIV/AIDS in the ``same breath'' as terrorism, the actor and activist said on ABC News' ``This Week'' on Sunday.

Bush has said he hopes to address the AIDS crisis with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

``India is a country that I care about deeply,'' Gere said. ``We're talking about a population in India that is close to a billion people. If this crisis hits them to the degree it's expected to, we've lost Asia.''

Gere said he hopes to use his celebrity to bring attention to the crisis.

``What I felt that I could bring to this that maybe someone else couldn't was the ability to talk to people at a high level in government, in business and in my own community of actors,'' he said.