Health ministers are in talks with the Treasury about dropping VAT on condoms to make them more affordable.

The government has been accused of "taxing sex" and discouraging people from having safer sex by charging 17.5% VAT on condoms.

Around 30p from every £1.99 pack of three condoms goes to the Treasury, and since some GPs have stopped giving out free condoms, sexual health campaigners have been calling for the levy to be dropped.

A Department of Health spokeswoman confirmed that it was asking the Treasury to revisit the issue.

"We have held discussions with the Treasury on this issue and gathered a good deal of research and information. We are planning to revisit the topic with the Treasury shortly," she said.

A spokesman for the Treasury said talks were ongoing. "We will consider the Department of Health's point of view and actively engage with them. It's not something that ministers will take lightly," he said.

Condoms are rated as "luxury" items by the Treasury and therefore incur the highest rate of VAT.

The chancellor has the option of applying a 5% tariff on a series of items approved by the EU, including condoms. But to drop VAT on condoms entirely would require a new EU directive.

A discussion within the EU about what items should be eligible for reduced or zero rates of VAT is expected later this year.

The Treasury made it clear that it was planning to lobby for reduced VAT in four areas, including the upkeep of places of worship and the cost of making buildings more energy efficient. But condoms are not currently on that list.

The moves are understood to be in response to the government-commissioned Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV which last October called for VAT on condoms to be lifted and for more free condoms to be available on the NHS.

The group argued that the cost of condoms meant that those in at-risk groups, in particular young people, did not always use them.

Government figures for teenage pregnancies in 2003, released last week, revealed that 8,000 girls under the age of 16 became pregnant in England and Wales in that year, meaning that its drive to halve the number of underage conceptions by 2010 has stalled.

Baroness Joyce Gould, the chairwoman of the advisory group, welcomed moves to examine the issue of VAT on condoms. She said: "The price of condoms is prohibitively high. They are certainly not a luxury; they are a health necessity."

The NHS spends about £4.3m a year on condoms and last year it gave away 38m condoms in England.

But it is up to individual GP surgeries whether they give out free condoms or refer patients to a chemist.

A spokeswoman for the Family Planning Association said: "We would welcome a reduction in the price of condoms.

"But price is only one factor. We would like to see more free condoms from GPs, too."

Lisa Power, head of policy at the HIV/Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "The cost savings are clear - the small amount gained by the Treasury in VAT on these items is dwarfed by the cost of treating poor sexual health. Each new case of HIV in the UK costs the country between £250,000 and £500,000."

The chemist Superdrug last week launched a campaign for VAT on condoms to be dropped with an online petition and a letter to the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, claiming that the levy amounted to a "stealth tax on sex [which] is a rip-off". The company has reduced the price of condoms in its stores by 17.5% for the duration of its campaign.