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More than three million peoples' lives have been saved by large-scale malaria interventions over a 12 year period, the Secretary-General told a group of leaders from Africa and Europe on Thursday. Ninety per cent of them are children, he underscored. Mr. Ban Ki-moon made his remarks in Brussels where he attended an event hosted by the African Union Commission and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. The meeting took place during the 4th European Union-Africa Summit. Fighting malaria has proven to be a good investment that saves lives and speeds up economic progress, the UN Chief added. "Funding for malaria control reached 2.5 billion in 2012. That is an impressive number � but it is only about half of the more than 5 billion we need to reach all people. As the Secretary-General, I have been appealing to G20 leaders, G8 leaders, many donors and business communities to mobilize the necessary funding. As one WHO official put it, this "half" amount can be seen as a glass half full or half empty. But at least as a positive way, we need to have it half full. But we will have to work to make this glass full." Mr. Ban recalled that when he started his term as Secretary-General, his goal was to reach zero deaths from malaria by 2015. He continued to say it was still possible but only with the continued support of world leaders and donors.