Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates generally decides to make donations to groups or causes that will have a clear "positive impact," preferably on a national or international scale, the multi-billionaire says in an interview published by Newsweek magazine this week.

The Newsweek interview touches on Gates' recent $100 million donation to combat childhood diseases in developing countries, his general attitude towards philanthropy and his thoughts on the antitrust case against Microsoft.

He and his wife, Melinda, decided to make a substantial commitment to the vaccination program because "contributing to the world's health has got to be a great opportunity," he says.

"About a month ago the plan came together, and we decided to fund it very aggressively, because vaccines can have such a huge impact, and yet there hasn't been that much private funding," Gates says.

The software mogul responded to criticism that he and his William H. Gates Foundation give little money compared to his personal fortune of $60 billion by saying the foundation has been making grants "for quite some time, and we'll keep giving gifts, and we do that because we think it can have some positive impact."

Gates acknowledged he has not taken as active a role with the foundation as his wife.

"Well, Melinda is very key to all our philanthropy. She gets to spend even more time on it than I do, and it's an area that she is enjoying learning about," Gates says.

He noted the time constraint of his "full-time job" as head of Microsoft, but said he "might get to put more time" into the foundation's efforts in the next few years. The Gates Foundation has assets of $1.8 billion. It provides grants to education initiatives, world health and family-planning efforts, and civic and arts organizations.

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