UNITED NATIONS: Software magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates, who is helping to spearhead a global campaign to eradicate polio, says he hopes that by 2015 no child in the world will be paralyzed by the disease and by 2018 polio will be wiped out. 

Gates said in an interview Thursday that there are only three countries where the polio virus has not been stopped _ Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The Microsoft founder spoke ahead of a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to launch the campaign to stamp out polio forever.

''We're hopeful that by 2015 no more children will be paralyzed ... and then by 2018 we'd have the certification that this, like smallpox, is now the second disease to be eradicated,'' Gates said.