The far-reaching decision, which still needs a formal Cabinet approval, was taken yesterday after a two-day brain storming meeting of officials from India's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) Programme.

J V R Prasad Rao, chief of NACO, announced that a core group will soon be formed to work out details of the programme to be submitted to the Cabinet for a political decision.

Rao said government had already accepted the need for AIDS vaccine and that ``We have the capability to develop it with international support.''

NACO, with assistance from NIH and UNAIDS, plans to create an ``umbrella'' organisation comprising a multi-disciplinary team with administrative and financial independence to take up all aspects of AIDSvaccine research and trials on ``a mission mode''.

``It will link Indian AIDS researchers with counterparts abroad and develop a flexible plan for producing candidate vaccine and testing them,'' said Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, former chief of Indian Council of Medical Research and the prime mover of the Indian vaccine initiative.

An official said India will be ready to launch the trials in two years. Over 2,500 people representing sex workers and those attending clinics for sexually transmitted diseases have been recruited in Pune for the trial, while another ``cohort'' of injectable drug users are being maintained in Mainipur in north-east India.

The choice of vaccine -- Indian or foreign -- will be decided at the right time, said Rao, adding that ``We have to tread very carefully on this.'' India had backed out of international clinical trial nine years ago to avoid criticism that its people are being used as guineapigs.