Protesters have ambushed former US president Bill Clinton at an AIDS conference where he paid tribute to members of the HIV community who lost their lives on flight MH17.
Mr Clinton was briefly interrupted as he took the stage on Wednesday when about 20 members of the Robin Hood Tax coalition sprang up from the audience holding placards and shouting "Clinton end AIDS with the Robin Hood tax" and "End AIDS with the Robin Hood tax."
The group wants a tax on financial transactions.
"This is called a conference but I think it's really a movement. That's why it's OK if someone stands up and has their say," he said.
Mr Clinton then said the HIV experts and lobbyists killed on their way to Melbourne on MH17 had lived "overpowering lives".
Among the six HIV researchers and lobbyists killed when the plane that was shot down over Ukraine was top AIDS researcher Dr Joep Lange, whom Clinton had met through the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which provides low-cost HIV and AIDS treatment to people in low-income countries.
"In 2003 Joep Lange, when we were just beginning at CHAI, helped us scale up AIDS treatment and care in Tanzania and South Africa," he told the audience on Wednesday.
"He continued to help us in the years since.
"He and the other five colleagues we lost, lived lives which are overpowering in their contribution to a shared future.
"Those people that we lost on that plane gave their entire lives to the proposition that our common humanity matters a hell of a lot more than our differences," he said to a round of applause.
He also told the overflowing auditorium at the International AIDS Conference that an AIDS-free generation is within reach.
Mr Clinton said there was still a long way to go in the fight against AIDS, although significant progress had been made.
"Here we are at the 20th anniversary of the conference, with the tools that we need to fight HIV and AIDS, to stop its transmission to new patients.
"The AIDS-free world that so many of you have worked to build is just over the horizon.
"We just have to step up the pace."
He said one of the biggest challenges the international community faces was the early detection of HIV.
He cited new data from 51 countries suggests 70 per cent of HIV-related deaths could have been prevented.
"The evidence continues to build that early treatment helps prevent further transmission."
UNAIDS estimates there were about 35 million people living with HIV in 2013.
The conference, called AIDS 2014 for short, has attracted 14,000 of the world's leading HIV scientists, policymakers and activists to discuss progress on managing and eradicating the virus.
Singer and activist Bob Geldof is scheduled to speak at the conference on Thursday.
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