JOHANNESBURG, March 1 (Reuters) - An Irish priest hailed as the first person in South Africa to volunteer for a trial AIDS vaccine was shot and badly wounded in an attack on Thursday, local news reports said.

Father Kieran Creagh, who directs an AIDS hospice north of Pretoria, was attacked by eight men who shot him twice and later fled with his cellphone and money from a safe, police spokesman Lucas Sithole told the SAPA news agency.

"He is in a stable but serious condition in hospital," Sithole said.

Creagh, from Belfast in Northern Ireland, was named "Irish Person of the Year" in 2004 for his work with HIV/AIDS in Africa, which included volunteering as a test subject for an AIDS vaccine candidate in 2003.

The priest was the first of 24 people to volunteer for the test vaccine, which is not a live strain of HIV but which scientists hope will stimulate production of antibodies that can later fight the virus.

Creagh founded the Leratong Hospice and has been an outspoken advocate of the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa, where an estimated 5 million of the country's 45 million people carry the virus.

Police said they had as yet made no arrests and were investigating a case of attempted murder and robbery.

The attack on Creagh looked likely to spur fresh debate about South Africa's high crime levels, which have come into focus as the country prepares to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

AlertNet news is provided by