BRUSSELS, June 9 (Xinhuanet) -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appealed on Thursday with U2 singer Bono to government leaders to double development aid to Africa and other poor regions over the next 10 years.

    Barroso said he hoped leaders of the 25 European Union (EU) nations would support the plan at a summit meeting next week.

    "With decisions on the European constitution and future budget on the table, there is a risk that important decisions on EU aid fall away from the public eye," said the chief of the EU executive.

    "We have some problems in Europe. But those problems are nothing in comparison to what is happening in Africa," he added.

    Ministers from the EU nations have already endorsed the aid plan, which aims to raise the EU's 57 billion-dollar annual development aid to over 111 billion dollars by 2015. However, Germany, Italy and Portugal have expressed reservations, citing aneconomic slowdown.

    Bono, the Irish rock star, also gave a loud and clear message to EU leaders, urging them not to blow it when it comes to development aid for poor countries.

    Bono was in Brussels, not only ahead of the U2 concert on Friday, but as a representative of Make Poverty History where the goal is to double development aid to the world's poorest countries by 2015 as part of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. Enditem