By Marcia Gelbart
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Irish rock star Bono was in town yesterday to perform, and to meet with African leaders about subjects near and dear to his heart: relief of Third World debt, the battle against AIDS, and the quest to increase trade in developing nations.

He met with the dignitaries, including leaders from Algeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast, at the Philadelphia Marriott, where the U.S.-Africa Business Summit drew 1,400 U.S. and African government and business leaders. The summit ended yesterday.

The meeting, Bono said, would help him develop personal connections with the people directly involved with and affected by Third World debt. Debt forgiveness, he said, could help struggling countries climb out of poverty and evolve.

"The debt issue appealed to me because it wasn't throwing pennies at the problem," Bono said. "It was looking at the structure of the problem."

At night, Bono and his band, U2, played the First Union Center.

Bono, who has a long history of lobbying governments for economic and social issues he says are complex and not particularly sexy, said yesterday that he wants to broaden that effort with an agenda that also embraces trade issues and AIDS.

The Sept. 11 tragedy, according to Bono, has made previously deaf ears listen more carefully to the pleas of activists urging closer attention to global matters.

Among the statistics the rocker quoted yesterday: 40 million children in sub-Saharan Africa will be orphaned by AIDS in the next 10 years; and 40 of the world's poorest nations owe nearly $200 billion, mostly to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Bono said he preferred to keep his political crusades off the stage.

"I try to keep my rants to a minimum," he said. "I don't think they want a lecture when they go to a rock show."