Nobel laureates embrace Bono as 'man of peace'
BONO joked it was "as close as I am going to get" to a Nobel peace prize as he received his own award from previous winners yesterday.
Nobel peace laureates gathered in Paris to award the Irish rocker-turned-activist an annual "Man of Peace" prize for his crusade to tackle African debt, poverty and disease.
He was pictured proudly clutching the prize with Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and International Children's Peace Prize Laureate Thandiwe Chama.
"This is a very big award for me, because let's be honest this is as close as I am going to get -- as close as a rock star is ever going to get -- to the Nobel Peace Prize," Bono quipped to the audience.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who hosted the event, handed the U2 frontman the Peace Summit Award in presence of five Nobel winners, for two decades of global anti-poverty activism.
"I am an over-awarded, over-rewarded rock star. You are the people who do the real work," Bono told the assembled Nobel winners, including John Hume, former South African leader FW de Klerk, and Lech Walesa of Poland.
"So I am very, very pleased to be in such esteemed company."
Organisers said Bono was chosen for his global campaigning to persuade rich nations to lighten Africa's debt burden, combat poverty, promote fair trade and raise funds for the treatment of HIV-AIDS and malaria.
"We decided to nominate a man who has given a lot and will continue to give a great deal to the struggle for human rights, to the fight against poverty, with his music and with his words," said Italian left-wing leader Walter Veltroni, co-host of the event.
"He has put pressure on the world's governments to reach the UN's Millennium Goals. To give him the prize, is to say that fight will carry on."
Last year's recipients were actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle, for speaking out against violence in Sudan's war-torn Darfur.
Nobel winners were meeting in Paris for a three-day summit, coinciding with celebrations marking 60 years since the UN declaration of human rights was adopted in Paris.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev -- whose foundation co-organises the annual event -- was unable to attend as he was undergoing eye treatment.
