WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama  yesterday announced a $63 billion, six-year health initiative  to help people in the world’s poorest countries, most of it to  bolster existing programmes.

“We cannot simply confront individual preventable illnesses  in isolation. The world is interconnected, and that demands an  integrated approach to global health,” Obama said in a  statement.

Obama will request the money in his budget for the 2010  fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. The White House has already  released the main elements of that budget, but plans to offer  greater details on Thursday.

The money will go toward efforts to fight AIDS, tropical  diseases and other illness and to help improve maternal health.  The initiative will be aimed at addressing “some of the biggest  global health challenges,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jack  Lew.

The programme to combat AIDS and malaria which is known as  the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and was created  in the Bush administration, would get $51 billion over the six  years.

The other $12 billion would be channeled to new programmes to  fight tropical disease and other health problems.