Geneva ? Heterosexual men should be circumcised because of compelling evidence it reduces their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent, U.N. health agencies said Wednesday.

But men should still use condoms and other protection against the virus, said the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, the U.N. agency that coordinates the global fight against the AIDS virus.

“We must be clear,” said Catherine Hankins, of UNAIDS. “Male circumcision does not provide complete protection against HIV.”

Besides condoms, men and women should use protections such as abstinence, delaying the start of sexual activity and reducing the number of sexual partners, she said.

Otherwise, they could develop a false sense of security and engage in high-risk behavior that could undermine the partial protection provided by male circumcision, the agencies said.

More study is needed to determine whether male circumcision will cut the transmission of HIV to women or reduce HIV infection in homosexual intercourse. “It probably does, but we don’t have sufficient research now to confirm that,” said Dr. Teguest Guermo of WHO. “We will be doing some more research on that.”