U2's Bono breaks Net Record

U2's Bono went online on June 10^th in support of Jubilee 2000's Drop the Debt Campaign. His presence proved to be an historical event as a record number of people came to the chat room to meet with the legendary pop star.

"I'm here to collect signatures on behalf of Jubilee 2000" Bono said. "Signatures that will put pressure on the G8 leaders to drop the debt and make sense of the nonsense of the millennium".

Internet users from a potential audience of 160m worldwide went online to ask the singer about his views on a range of issues from world debt to lyric writing. The singer ended the 90 minute interview with the net's biggest spontaneous on-line sing along.

Microsoft, who handled the web cast said afterwards that their chat room had never been so full. "We anticipated a huge response," said MSN special events producer Niall MacAnna. "But we were overwhelmed tonight and doubled our record with almost 2 million page visits. I expect that figure to triple over the next week."

On the chat, Bono confirmed that he was going to Cologne on June 19^th - not to do a concert but for "business - serious business - the heavy hittin business. 100,000 of us if the sun shines and we're not going to take no for an answer.... Ewan McGregor has given us all light sabres for the day and the force is with us."

He also appealed to his audience to join the Human Chains in London and Cologne. “We are going to surround the G8 Summit in Cologne on June 19^th with a human chain. We are going to do the same on Sunday 13^th June in London. Anyone who wants to come please join us - it's going to be a lot of fun and lots of people and lots of pressure to drop the debts of the poorest countries in the world by the richest countries in the world.”

He concluded his online chat by saying: " Change the world. It's cheaper in the end"

• Full transcript of the chat and online petition can be found at http://www.dropthedebt.org
• Bono goes online to promote the Jubilee 2000 Petition