Bono moved one step closer to the ultimate peace prize, the Nobel, last week when he received the annual Man of Peace award that's awarded by past winners of the Nobel.

No guesses for why the U2 frontman received the honor, given the massive amount of humanitarian work he does when he's not focusing on the day job.

"We decided to nominate a man who has given a lot and will continue to give a great deal to the struggle for human rights, to the fight against poverty, with his music and with his words," said Walter Veltroni, the event's co-host and a leader of the Italian left.

Bono was pretty awed by the occasion. "The Man of Peace award ... come on ... let's be honest ... we all know this is as close as I'm going to get to the real thing so I am holding on tight to this," he joked. (Hmmm, we wouldn't be surprised at all to see Bono one day collect the Nobel proper . . .)

"The U.S. gun lobby spends nearly $200 million a year making sure you can't get elected if you support gun control. Tobacco companies spend $19 million on lobbying Congress. The world's poor deserve more than that," said Bono.

President-elect Barack Obama got a shout out from the rock star as well. "Despite the huge economic crisis, Barack Obama has made a bold promise to double aid to Africa. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is the two million members of the (anti-poverty) ONE campaign that we have in America ... and you know that it's not just Obama himself that's committed. It's his whole team, even his security team, the tough guys," Bono said.

And though Bono had several productive meetings with outgoing President George W. Bush, he praised what he called "a new thinking in America, a re-imagining of how to deal with some of the greatest challenges of our time, things like extreme climate change, extreme ideologies and extreme poverty, which is entangled with both."

It's going to be a busy 2009 for Bono and U2, with the highly anticipated new album due to drop in the early part of the year.

Last week the band was in London shooting the first video, according to U2.com.