Chris Martin Speaks Out Over Global Poverty

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said defeating global poverty was an "achievable goal" and not some mystical dream.

The campaigning musician said it just needed the will to change and warned if action was not taken the world faced an apocalypse. Martin said: "It really is an achievable goal to at least lessen world poverty and to lessen the Aids problem and to make trade laws fairer.

"It's really achievable, it's not a mystical thing ... it literally takes like 10 men ... to just sit round a table and say 'Yeah why don't we change this law', or 'Why don't we lower the tariff barrier on imports from Ghana?' or 'Why don't we, why don't we stop sending so much surplus rice to Mexico?' It's very easy to do. That's why I'm excited because I feel like if people like me make the right albums and sell enough records ... can talk to the right people."

The singer was talking on ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby Programme today as part of a pre-Christmas special on global poverty. Martin, who is married to Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow, told the programme: "I'm like anybody else, you can either ignore it and just pretend it doesn't exist or in my case you can feel like you've been given so much that .... you have to take an interest in it.

"I've got a baby and I think if the world keeps going the way it is, it's going to be bad for everybody, not just for poor people, because it can't keep going the way it is, you know, trade the way it is, or Aids the way it is. So I don't want to see the apocalypse."

The pop star said he believed Tony Blair and Mr Brown "genuinely want to do something positive" with their development agenda adding: "They know that they can do something special next year. "I mean they're hosting the G8 and they're in charge of the EU and Peter Mandelson's trade minister, and they're in a really influential position next year, and I'm excited because I think that they're as much as a politician can be."