Diplomats urged to back families, teen abstinence; Uganda's first lady says the United Nations can fight AIDS without undermining morality.(PAGE ONE)

Byline: George Archibald, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

NEW YORK - More than 300 leaders of pro-family groups pleaded with diplomats at the United Nations yesterday to reaffirm marriage and promote sexual abstinence among teen-agers.

The U.N. practice of providing millions of condoms to sexually active youth and adults in Africa was sharply criticized by Janet K. Museveni, first lady of Uganda, who said the world body should instead be promoting sexual abstinence to attack the HIV and AIDS "pandemic" ravaging the continent.

"The young person who has trained to be disciplined will, in the final analysis, survive better than the one who has been instructed to wear a piece of rubber and continue with 'business as usual,'" Mrs. Museveni told a World Congress of Families meeting on the eve of the General Assembly's Special Session on Children, which formally begins Wednesday.

"When we …