(ANSA) - Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof congratulated Italy on Thursday on putting together a bigger line-up of stars than any other country participating in the initiative.
Geldof sent a "special" message to the coordinators of the Italian concert, to be held on Saturday at Rome's Circus Maximus, expressing his appreciation to the host of pop stars that have agreed to perform.
"In none of the other countries involved has there been the same mobilisation of stars," he said.
Keen to do their bit to highlight global poverty, some 35 Italian singers and groups have said they will do a turn at the Rome concert, which will be broadcast live on national television.
Urged on by Geldof, Italy's popular blues-rock singer Zucchero has agreed to perform first at Circus Maximus and then to fly to Paris to appear there too in the evening.
Although few of those due to perform in Rome are well-known in the English-speaking world, the line-up contains practically all the big names in the Italian pop scene. It includes 'old-guard' names such as Renato Zero, Fiorella Mannoia and Francesco De Gregori, who will appeal to mums and dads, and popular contempory acts such as Elisa, Le Vibrazioni and Francesco Renga. Duran Duran and Yussuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, are among the non-Italian acts expected to appear also.
At the same time as the Rome concert is going on, similar events will be held simultaneously in London, Paris, Berlin, Philadephia, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Toronto. The aim is to raise awareness of Make Poverty History, a campaign to get the richest nations to cancel debt and increase aid to developing countries, and to promote fair trade.
Live 8 is timed to precede the G8 summit which takes place from 6 to 8 July at Gleneagles in Scotland.
