At the Greenbelt Festival press conference pop star DANIEL BEDINGFIELD fielded questions from a bevy of journalists and broadcasters. Here's what he said.

Since 2001 when he exploded onto the national scene with his recorded-in-a-bedroom garage mega hit "Gotta Get Thru This" the more discerning music critics have recognised that this Daniel Bedingfield is one of the most complete and rounded performers in the whole popular music arena. Where many artists stumble across a successful sound and style and then spend the rest of their careers endeavouring to replicate their winning formula, the New Zealand-born singer has taken the purchasers of his two albums, 2003's 'Gotta Get Thru This' and 2004's 'Second First Impression' on a creative roller coaster that takes in R&B, rock, reggae, dance, hip-hop and pop. And while Daniel's biggest hit has been the internationally successful ballad "If You're Not The One" even his sternest critics would admit that in singing he was one of the most formidable and versatile voices in the whole pop pantheon while his ability to write quality songs in such a dazzling variety of styles has resulted in at least one critic suggesting Bedingfield's an "A&R man's nightmare."

Daniel has long been known to Cross Rhythms readers. Back in 1996 CR was commenting on the hugely talented 16 year old singer/rapper Danny B, as he was then known, while in 1998 we ran an interview with The DNA Algorithm, the R&B/dance gospel group which featured Daniel and sisters Natasha and Nikola. But, of course, an awful lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. Natasha too is a big pop hit with her UK debut album, currently a smash in the USA, while Nikola too has the talent to make the Bedingfields the pop music equivalent of the Winans family. Now Daniel is involved in a task even larger than bettering the three million plus sales of his debut album. With TV personality and preacher Steve Chalk he has taken on the role of spokesperson for Stop The Traffik, a conglomerate of different charities which could well become the most significant pressure group of the 21st century as it seeks to bring a halt to the scandalous world wide trade in human beings that is today blighting our culture. To draw the media's attention to Stop The Traffik Daniel spoke at a press conference hastily organised before his performance at the Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival at Cheltenham Race Course. Here is an edited transcription of that press conference.

When and how did you get involved with Stop The Traffik?

Steve Chalke and I were sitting down together, and we were talking about what I would really like to do. People tend to listen to you a little more once you've sold a few records, and he was wondering what I'd like to say, now that I did have a chance to say something. So I was thinking about AIDS orphans. Then Steve made me aware of the statistics [of human trafficking] - conservative estimates, depending on who you talk to, 12 million girls in the last year were sex slaves. It's outrageous. So I said it was something I'd really like to do.

When the Nazis rose to power, there were some people who said 'No - we can make a difference - you're not going to do this.' They got killed, but they did stand up and say it's NOT okay. If a National Socialist party was to rise up in Britain, I would be saying something. There's something as shocking as the Holocaust happening right now. It's happening all around our world - in our country. Men in Britain are visiting these prostitutes in King's Cross. In our apathy we are letting girls be trafficked. If everyone knew this was happening, and everyone was given a chance to say something, we would demand that our Governments made a difference. They can impose severe legislation; they can say to India 'If you don't want to be a Third Tier country, you have to stop trafficking. You have to make these changes if you want to remain a Second Tier country.' There are all sorts of other things we need to do. But joining the Stop The Traffik campaign is the beginning.

How has the public responded so far?

It's a funny thing with dreams: you can see the heart of something and then it's kind of like a fractal. Even if it grows huge, it still remains the same shape. You can dream it as a seed, or you can dream it massive or small; it doesn't really change very much. So it didn't really matter to me.I have a kind of belief that when you're fighting injustice, there's a core humanity that can just resonate with the vast majority of human beings. So if something shocking is happening, and you tell them about it, there will be some kind of groundswell. It doesn't really matter to me whether people get furious about this and try to make a change through STT, or through anything else. As I said, it's not a charity that we're trying to build over years; it's an issue that we want to address. And we want to help anyone who's going to address it.

What practical forms will political pressure take?

Well, the UN will have its ways; the EU will have its ways; the US government, if it gets involved, will have its ways.and I'm just a dude who sings. But I do know that political pressure would make a huge difference to stop people trafficking. I think that the UN still has enough power to pull some major punches on this level.

What's your personal involvement been in all this?

I've just been in Mumbai with the International Justice Mission; they go in, rescue girls from the brothels and help them get their lives back together again. I've also been out there with Oasis, just visiting some of these girls who've been sold into prostitution. I've also just been out in Mozambique with a lot of the AIDS orphans out there - and a lot of those kids have been trafficked, or come from mothers who have been. This is going to be a consuming passion for me over the next 10 years. I plan to dedicate a huge amount of my life to this, whether it's through STT or not, this is something I'm seething about. It's amazing to be a human being in a country in the West where your vote actually does count. I know that a lot of people don't vote. But, if they're made aware that their vote can do something specifically; if they're given an issue (and it's not just about voting for leaders, but about voting on an issue), I think a lot of people would take that power that they've been given.

Do you ever worry that this passion of yours could hamper your musical creativity?

No. I think that passion and music are so incredibly intertwined; if I didn't do something like this, we'd never have any good songs from me ever again. Both my parents are social workers and counsellors. I grew up in and around Brixton on the estates. That's what we did on Saturdays: we went and hung out with estate kids; gave them something to do.there was never this belief in our family that parents did something and the kids were just kind of add-ons, so there was a very tight community. You'll see this more as Nikola Rachelle emerges. Nikola is the third Bedingfield; doesn't sound like me or Tash at all, much more like Jill Scott or Fiona Apple. She's incredible, phenomenal. beats the crap out of me, I can tell you that! That social justice thing is built very deeply within all the Bedingfields. And if you listen to my lyrics, it does kind of work its way out. It's in there; I question everything. Nikola said to me once, 'Why don't you write from someone else's perspective, Dan?' But I just can't. I just can't do it. I can't make up a scenario and write a good song. It feels like lying to me. There's this destructive level of honesty in my music. It can be incredibly embarrassing; my closest friends say to me 'You can't put that song out - that's just too personal! You're going to hurt yourself and the people involved.' And I say, 'I have to be this raw and this honest. That's part of the whole thing, this honesty and connecting to the more primal, and the higher parts of myself.'

Does it worry you that you could get so far, but then the Governments could fail to follow through on any promises they make?