Rock star Bono has insisted he is not interested in becoming a politician despite his globetrotting work as a rights campaigner.

The U2 frontman said music was still his first love and that politics was not something he saw in his future.

"Nothing comes close to the feeling of waking up with a melody in your head and having a band like U2 to help you capture it," he told Hot Press magazine.

I don't think I could live with the pay cut or moving to a smaller house

Bono

"Politicians don't turn me on, politics doesn't turn me on, the way music does. I have a lot more respect for them than I used to. They work a lot harder than I thought...but I don't want to be one."

The Irish star recently travelled the world to lobby world leaders including French President Jacques Chirac to encourage them to improve aid relief to developing countries.

Bono and US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil went on a 10-day four-nation tour of the continent aimed at improving the impact of development aid.

He also visited a South African hospital for mothers infected with HIV to see for himself the devastating affect the disease is having on Africa.

U2 are planning to release a greatest hits album

Bono's name has been mentioned in connection as a possible Irish presidential candidate, a position which is largely ceremonial and attracts people from outside politics.

But Bono joked: "I don't think I could live with the pay cut or moving to a smaller house."

The 42-year-old has long been a campaigner against anything he sees as unjust.

"I'm getting angrier and that's what makes me believe that with some smart thinking and simple changes to our lives, we can drastically improve the lives of so many other people," he said.

He also told the magazine U2 have been working on a follow-up to their Grammy-winning album All That You Can't Leave Behind and are planning to release a greatest hits compilation later in the year.

"We set up in a disused bar/nightclub in the South of France. Very punk rock and very like old clubs we used to play.

"Maybe it was being in that kind of venue, but the music we started to make was very lo-fi high energy."