We have the opportunity to give a fresh start to one billion people. On New Year's Eve we want the world's banks to drop the debt that's owed to them by the poorest of the poor. Millennium night shouldn't only be about champagne and fireworks. We can make a difference.

People might look at me as this big rock star in a big house with loads of money and that's fair enough. But I cannot ignore the fact that there are millions of people who are being crippled because of the debt s their countries owe.

For every £1 that's given to these African nations in aid, they have to pay £9 back in interest. It's obscene.

I was in New York recently meeting with politicians and the banks and the MTV Awards happened to be on at the same time.

Everyone thought I was there for the show but I was wearing my bowler hat and carrying my briefcase.

I can't wait to get back to my day job.

I think when I meet the bosses of these huge banks they find it all quite amusing that there's this pop star banging on their table.

Amusing that is, until I ask them for billions of dollars!

The banks have to face the reality that they lent out all this money but they ain't gonna get it back.

I know cancelling debt is against their religion.

This is a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity. We have the perfect script for New Year's Eve.

I would love to see Tony Blair and Gordon Brown standing in the Millennium Dome and announce to the world that the debts have been cleared - then we can all party. They would make history.

The West has plundered the Third World over the last thousand years so now we can give something back. The poorest of the poor must be let off their debt to the richest of the rich.

Then these countries can rebuild and work for their future.

They can trade and take part in the world economy and that can only be a good thing.

I took part in Live Aid and when we raised $200 million we were jumping for joy but then we discovered that's what Africa spends EVERY WEEK servicing its debt.

Myself and Bob Geldof want to see Live Aid through because not a lot has changed in these countries since then.

That's because more money is spent on servicing their debts than is spent on health and education put together.

That's why the life expectancy in these countries is something like 47 years.

I worked in Ethiopia after Live Aid for a month and it was a very humbling experience.

The dignity of these people waiting in line for food, beautiful women with their heads shaved. In another life they could have been on a catwalk in Paris.

They are just like you and me. Let's not make them beg.

Geldof inspired me and that's why we've been to see the Pope. It is 100 days until the end of the Millennium and now is the time for the Nineties to act.

The Pope has spoken strongly and is very committed to debt relief.

An old man is urging world leaders to hurry up.

I'm more comfortable being in a band than in a boardroom but, hey, an idea like this doesn't come along every year. I'm backing it, the Pope's backing it and so a Robbie Williams, the Dalai Lama, George Michael, the Prodigy and David Bowie - what an unholy combination.