Live Aid II in the park

Stars including Joss Stone, Oasis and Robbie Williams are set to be confirmed for a massive new Live Aid concert in Hyde Park this summer. The 16-hour gig, 20 years since the original Live Aid at Wembley, is being arranged to pressurise world leaders into addressing the problem of Third World debt.

Bob Geldof is understood to be behind the project and is in talks with dozens of other A-List stars to convince them to perform free.

The event comes despite his public protestations that a sequel to Live Aid would take place "over my f****** dead body".

He is reported to have described the idea as a "disaster" and insisted: "I wouldn't do it and I can't see a point to it."

But it has emerged that he has been secretly planning the event for months, along with promoter Harvey Goldsmith and film director Richard Curtis.

And today the concert came closer than ever to being confirmed, with a string of new names added to the planned bill, including original Band Aid veterans Annie Lennox and Sting, and young rockers Razorlight.

The Live Aid show is being scheduled for Saturday, 2 July to coincide with the G8 world leaders' summit in Scotland on Third World debt, and so has been dubbed Live 8.

It will be screened live on BBC and broadcast simultaneously by all major commercial radio stations - similar to the UK Radio Aid stunt earlier this year, organised to raise money for the tsunami disaster.

The Prince of Wales, a guest at the first Live Aid concert 20 years ago, has agreed to cancel this summer's Prince's Trust Party In The Park event to make way for the show.

Unlike the original Live Aid concert, it is understood the event will not be geared toward raising public cash.