JAKARTA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Community groups have been playing the key role in reducing the number of Immuno Disease Syndrome (AIDS) patients by 80 percent in 2010, a senior Indonesian AIDS activist said Tuesday.

    "At the moment, we have identified 30,000 of the estimated 150,000 AIDS/HIV patients in the country. With its easy-to-be- accepted character, there would be more patients identified by the government. "Zoebairi Djoerban, chairman of the upcoming 9th Asia Pacific AIDS/HIV congress, told a press conference here.

    Working along with the government, the community groups would help speed up Indonesia's efforts to fulfill the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on AIDS/HIV that requires all member countries to halt and reverse the spread of the epidemic by2015, he said.

    The goal includes the Universal Access target of 2010, by when all those who need treatment should receive it. It also urges all countries to strengthen their health systems to ensure effective delivery of medical services.

    Zoebairi said that the steering committee would present eight community groups in the congress scheduled to be held from August 9 to 13 in Bali.

    Those community groups would start their discussions on August 7 prior to the congress commencement. Community group delegations from various Asian Pacific countries had confirmed to take part inthe discussions. They will share experiences that could be adopted by other delegations.

    Despite the recent bombing in Jakarta, Zoebairi was optimistic that the congress would be successful. "There is no significant drop in hotel occupancy rate in Jakarta after the bombing. It indicated that foreigners are less affected by the bombing."

    Zoebairi said that more than 65 countries have confirmed their attendance to the congress.