Bono takes aid cause to Republicans

Bono has appealed to American Republicans to tackle the Aids crisis in Africa if they win a second term at the November elections.

The Beautiful Day rocker spoke to Fox News reporter Bill O'Reilly at New York's Madison Square Garden during this week's Republican National Convention.

Bono says: "I'm a non-partisan guy. Yes, I've stopped rooting. I'm rooting for people that don't have a vote and for people whose faces we don't see."

Bono's co-founded organisation Debt Aids Trade Africa (DATA) encourages first world countries to drop Africa's debt and is hoping America's pharmaceutical companies will send Aids and HIV drugs to the continent.

Bono laments: "It's an emergency - 69,000 Africans dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease.

"Look, if you see a car crash, somebody's lying there in the middle of the road bleeding and it turns out they're a drunk driver, you're still going to call an ambulance.

"We can't make these judgments about entire civilizations. We try to re-educate people. We try to deal with the problem."