MTV anchor Cyrus Broacha is slated to moderate an hour long programme which will have former US president Bill Clinton among other panelists who will take questions from young adults from over 25 countries on the global AIDS epidemic.

The MTV special, titled Staying Alive: A Global Forum on HIV/AIDS, will be taped on 11 July in Barcelona and will be telecast from 12 July onwards on more than 30 MTV channels around the world. The special, says the channel, is part of a new youth-oriented AIDS awareness campaign MTV is launching in conjunction with the Kaiser Family Foundation and Family Health International. 

Joining Clinton on the panel will be Peter Piot, head of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, Brazilian Health Ministry official Paulo Roberto Teixeira and Vicki Ehrich of British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline Plc. 

The former president, an honorary co-chairman of the International AIDS Trust foundation, first appeared on MTV during his initial bid for the White House in 1992, when he appeared on a town hall-style special in which he played his saxophone and gamely answered questions about what sort of underwear he wore. He later credited the MTV appearance with helping energize young people about politics and went on to unseat Republican incumbent President George Bush in the general election.

The special show is the second in a series of "social awareness" specials MTV has aired this year. In February 2002, the channel organized "Be Heard: An MTV Global Discussion With Colin Powell," a forum that had young adults across the world shooting questions at the US secretary of state.