U2's Bono pays homage to 'new Argentina'

Bono

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Irish rock star Bono wound up the Latin America leg of U2's Vertigo tour with a message of optimism for crisis-wracked Argentina.

"Argentines have gone through difficult times, but these have been overcome by a new Argentina," he said in Spanish, to the 60,000-strong crowd at River Plate stadium yesterday.

The Irish singer, who bounded onstage dressed in the colours of the Argentine flag, compared the country to Ireland, where famine and poverty forced millions into emigration.

But Bono's key message for Argentina -- now on a rebound from the 2001-02 economic crisis -- was to look to the future.

"Our pasts will not prevent us from making a better future for ourselves," said the singer, known for his work promoting human rights and debt relief.

Bono also sang Mothers of the Disappeared in a homage to the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who denounced the disappearance of tens of thousands during Argentina's 1976-83 military regime. Several of the elderly mothers were at the concert.

He partied afterwards with soccer legend Diego Maradona.

- REUTERS