The final draft, thrashed out during late night discussions, was immediately condemned as blinkered and ineffective by some of the non-governmental HIV/AIDS action groups attending the three-day conference in New York.
The declaration, aimed at setting a course towards the goal of universal access to AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010, was scheduled to be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly later in the day.
UN officials close to the negotiations noted that the final document contained stronger language on the importance of empowering women and girls, as well as detailed language on prevention, including specific references to male and female condom use.
Such references had been opposed by certain Muslim and conservative Latin American countries.
General Assembly president Jan Eliasson recommended the draft to member nations as "a good, substantial and forward-looking document."
But the draft stopped short of listing those most at risk to HIV infection, such as sex workers, intravenous drug users and homosexuals, and opted instead for the euphemism "vulnerable groups."
While it accepted a UN estimate that 20-23 billion dollars in annual funding would be needed to support scaled-up AIDS responses by 2010, it released developed nations from any firm timetable commitments to achieving that goal.
"We are furious," said Aditi Sharma, HIV/AIDS campaign and policy coordinator for ActionAid International.
"It is incomprehensible how negotiators could come up with such a weak declaration when we needed urgent action to stop 8,500 people dying and 13,500 people from becoming infected every day," Ms Sharma said.
AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognised in 1981, according to UNAIDS, the UN agency coordinating the fight against the disease.
Gender equality was one of the more contentious topics under debate at the meeting, and the final draft notably contained fresh language pledging countries to allow women greater control over their sexual and reproductive health, "free of coercion, discrimination and violence."
UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot urged the General Assembly to adopt the declaration, saying it would "take us to the next stage in the fight against AIDS."
"Even though we may have differences of tactics, as was clear this week, we are all a critical piece of the same strategy," Mr Piot said.