WASHINGTON -- Saturday is World AIDS Day, and this year there is reason to celebrate.

David Bryden of the Global AIDS Alliance said many prevention programs around the world "have really started to make an impact." He said there are fewer infections and many more people are on life-saving treatment. But Bryden said "there's still a long way to go," noting that the virus kills 6,000 people a day and infects another 7,000.

President George W. Bush is marking the occasion with a request for Congress to approve an additional $30 billion over the next five years for the global fight against AIDS. He also announced plans to visit Africa early in the new year to highlight the need and his administration's efforts.

In honor of Saturday's World AIDS Day, the White House has placed a symbolic 28-foot-high red ribbon in the North Portico. Visitors this weekend will be getting red ribbon stickers and an AIDS fact card.

With that ribbon and the White House in the background, a loud protest against Bush administration AIDS policies on Friday resulted in dozens of arrests.

Police said 40 people were taken into custody when they sat on the sidewalk and refused to move.

In advance of World AIDS Day, the students, HIV-positive activists and health advocates were calling for increased funding and an end to abstinence-only sex education requirements for U.S.-funded programs abroad.

The protesters also charge the disease has largely been ignored in the nation's capital, which has the country's worst rate of infection.

A White House spokeswoman said that since 2001 Bush "has delivered over $129 billion to effectively prevent and treat AIDS at home and abroad."

A telephone survey found Americans are more concerned about the global AIDS epidemic than climate change. But 25 years after the first confirmed case of the disease, 30 percent of Americans say they know little or nothing about it.

The survey of 1,002 Americans was conducted by Canadian research firm IPSOS and paid for by Christian humanitarian organization World Vision. The survey was conducted in September, but the results were released to coincide with World AIDS Day.

Americans ranked the war in Iraq, poverty and hunger, and the global economy all above AIDS, when read a list of issues.

Half the Americans surveyed said they would be willing to pay more in taxes to help pay for prevention, treatment, research, and care for AIDS patients, but the same number said they have no personal connection with AIDS.