A logo meant for next year's World Aids Conference and featuring two elephants mating has caused outrage among event organisers, said a report on Tuesday.

The irreverent alternative logo appeared on flags displayed by community groups taking part in the National Aids Conference in the capital, Bangkok, this week.

An indignant Dr Sombat Tanprasertsuk of the Diseases Control Department told The Nation newspaper: 'The logo fails to convey any meaning.

'There is only one message people would get: that community workers are obsessed with sex.'

The logo is a send-up of the official symbol for the World Aids Conference, to be held in Thailand from July 11 to 16 next year.

It shows three elephants - male, female and baby - standing side by side with their trunks raised.

But Dr Sombat said he saw the funny side of the incident, quipping that the alternative logo could not even be described as educational because 'it doesn't show the male elephant wearing a condom at all'.

Community groups displaying the flags at the Aids conference said these were designed to create fun and attract attention to their programmes at the world symposium.

Mr Chumpol Apisuk, a member of the conference's community committee, said the official logo was 'dull'.

'I don't see any obscenity in our logo. We have the same kind of images on several temple walls,' he told The Nation.

Elephants are revered in Thai culture as symbols of wisdom, strength and longevity. -- AFP