Bono, Geldof challenge Sarkozy over Africa

PARIS: Campaigning rockers Bono and Bob Geldof challenged French President Nicolas Sarkozy to increase  aid to Africa, saying France was failing to live up to  commitments it made at a G8 summit in 2005.

The U2 frontman and the former Boomtown Rats singer, who played an active role in the Live 8 concerts in support of aid and debt relief ahead of the summit, said failure by G8 leaders to keep their promises to the world's poorest was ‘a disgrace’'.

The G8 had agreed at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010. But according to a report by advocacy group DATA launched by the rockers in Paris on Wednesday, the G8 has so far delivered just 14 percent of what was pledged.
''It's a disgrace that the rich world, France included, has failed so utterly and miserably,'' Geldof told a news conference.