WASHINGTON (AP) - Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions joined two Republican colleagues in calling for major changes in HIV/AIDS funding from the federal government.

At a news conference yesterday, Sessions along with Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and North Carolina's Richard Burr, said they want more money allocated to the South, especially to rural communities.

Sessions, who is a member of the Senate Health Committee, said he will support Coburn's legislation to give more money to cases of people who are infected with H-I-V and have not developed AIDS.

Investigators with the Government Accountability Office have found that some funding formulas disproportionately benefit states with urban areas, due to a quirk that double-counts AIDS patients in 51 metropolitan areas.

The White House also support changes in the federal funding formula, though administration officials have not offered details on how the changes would affect states. The Health and Human Services Department could provide few details on the administration's proposals today.

There are an estimated ten-thousand documented cases of H-I-V in Alabama.