THE QUESTION ASKED OF THE president by a British reporter sounded like a setup, aimed at getting Bush to dismiss Bono and reject the U2 singer's pleas for aid to poor, debt-laden countries as mere "rhetoric from rock stars." And, at first, Bush seemed to take the bait. "Part of this world," he said, "we got a lot of big talkers." But Bono, in his view, wasn't one of them. "Bono has come to see me," he said. "I admire him. He is a man of depth and a great heart who cares deeply about the impoverished folks on the continent of Africa. And I admire his leadership on the issue." On top of that, the president took exception to the reporter's condescending reference to rock stars. "I can't remember how you characterized the rock stars," he said, "but I don't characterize them that way, having met the man."

Bush has twice invited Bono to the Oval Office to discuss Africa. The first meeting, in 2002, was joined by several White House aides and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Catholic leader in Washington. Bono is a Catholic. The second, in 2003, involved only Bush, Bono, and Condoleezza Rice, Bush's then national security adviser. Bono and Michael Gerson, the president's counselor and speechwriter, have also struck up a friendship. They lunched together in Philadelphia in May, and Gerson and his wife Dawn attended the U2 concert there that evening. Bono dedicated a song to Gerson, who had never been to a rock concert before. "It was loud," Gerson says.

The Bush-Bono relationship symbolizes the administration's emphasis on aiding sub-Saharan Africa. "It's fair to say the president views this as a major foreign policy focus," a senior Bush aide says. So much so that Gerson spent nine days in early June in Namibia, Mozambique, and South Africa to investigate the effectiveness of the Bush effort. He found that what's known at the White House as PEPFAR--the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief--is working well, with funds arriving ahead of schedule. But the Millennium Challenge Fund, which finances development projects in poor countries that are democratic and agree to encourage economic freedom, is not up to speed.

The concentration on Africa is not Bush's compassionate conservative agenda for his second term. That's because he began paying serious attention to Africa and other poor countries in his first term. At the press conference where he defended Bono, Bush seemed irritated that he's gotten so little credit for this. He visited Africa in 2003, stopping in Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, and Nigeria. The trip is remembered mostly for the passionate speech he gave on Goree Island in Senegal, once the departure point for slaves going to America. "The spirit of Africans in America did not break," he said then. "Yet the spirit of their captors was corrupted."

At the press conference Bush declared, "We've tripled aid to Africa," repeating what he'd said in his opening statement. At the Q and A session, he was joined by British prime minister Tony Blair. "Africa is an important part of my foreign policy. I remember when I first talked to Condi [Rice], when I was trying to convince her to become the national security adviser, she said, 'Are you going to pay attention to the continent of Africa?' I said, 'You bet.'"