Bono upset at G8 leaders - Reuters

Reuters AlertNet - INTERVIEW-G8 Africa pledge is a smokescreen, says Bono: "Rock star Bono denounced world leaders on Friday for producing a 'deliberately misleading' pledge to fight AIDS and other killer diseases.

'I am exasperated,' Bono told Reuters in a telephone interview at the Baltic resort where leaders from the world's rich nations were rounding off their three-day summit.

'I think it is deliberately the language of obfuscation. It is deliberately misleading,' he added.

G8 leaders announced a $60 billion pledge to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis with great fanfare but many activists were disappointed that they failed to set a timetable for the spending plans and that it contained little new money.

'They have taken language hostage. We wanted numbers but this is burobabble,' Bono said, criticising the lack of a timeline and the fact that the pledge did not apply specifically to Africa."