(Associated Press) BALTIMORE - President Bill Clinton invoked the legacy of John F. Kennedy's 1960s race to the moon Sunday (5/18/97) and set a national target of developing an AIDS vaccine within the next decade.

"We dare not be complacent in meeting the challenge of HIV," Clinton said in announcing the creation of a research center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to complete the task.

Up to 50 researchers drawn from existing NIH programs will staff the suburban Washington facility. No new money was earmarked.

AIDS-activist organizations immediately attacked the plan, calling it a warmed-over version of earlier failed policies and saying it was not enough. "This is a phony announcement," said Wayne Turner, Washington spokesman for the AIDS activist group,ACT-UP. "He talks the big talk, but all he's doing is reshuffling a couple dozen employees."

But, Clinton told 850 graduates of Morgan State University, "It is no longer a question of whether we can develop an AIDS vaccine, it is simply a question of when. And it cannot come a day too soon."

The president declared that the United States is entering an age of biological advances and outlined an agenda for ensuring that scientific breakthroughs benefit everyone.

"If the 21st Century is to be the century of biology, let us make an AIDS vaccine its first great triumph," he said.

A vaccine is urgently needed for prevention, Clinton said, pointing out that 3 million people around the world were infected with HIV - the virus that leads to AIDS - last year. He noted the virus now ranks with tuberculosis and malaria as the world's deadliest infectious disease.

"HIV is capable of mutating and becoming resistant to therapies and could well become even more dangerous," Clinton said.

Jose Zuniga, spokesman for the advocacy group, AIDS Action, said Clinton must ensure that researchers developing protease inhibitors, promising developments in the search for AIDS cures, are not taken away to pursue a vaccine. Zuniga also urged Clinton not to drain monies from social - support programs for AIDS sufferers, such as housing and Medicaid, to fund vaccine research.

"As long as those conditions are met, this is an important announcement the president has made," Zuniga said.

Roughly $148 million is devoted to the vaccine work in Clinton's budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, said Sandy Thurman, the president's AIDS adviser. Though the budget is $17 million more than it was last year, no new money was allocated for AIDS research.

Clinton said he will enlist other nations in vaccine research next month, when he meets with leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in Denver.

Clinton compared the search for an AIDS vaccine with President Kennedy's 1961 challenge to put a man on the moon before 1970.