"I am here to perform for humanity," Adams told a news conference on his arrival in the city, where he will stage a charity show later Sunday to raise funds for victims of last October's earthquake.

The concert is seen as a sign that the city of 12 million is undergoing something of a cultural revival after two decades of sectarian, ethnic and criminal bloodletting.

Karachi gained further notoriety in 2002 through the kidnap and beheading by Al-Qaeda-linked extremists of US reporter Daniel Pearl.

Adams is the first Western pop star to play in Pakistan since the start of the US-led "war on terror" in 2001.

"I feel OK here and my perception of Pakistan is much like a lot of other places," he said.

"I've been out for the last 20 years and I think people are people and I don't have a different perception of Pakistan."

Adams described his visit to Pakistan as exciting.

"First of all it's exciting because, as far as I know, we are the first Western artists to come and play a big concert here," he said.

"The perception around the world right now of Pakistan obviously is a country in need of help and as a Canadian I am very happy and very proud to be part of this evening performance," he said.

"We are going to raise a lot of money to hopefully help rebuild some schools in the area that has been devastated."

The quake killed 73,000 people in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir and left 3.5 million homeless.

"We are doing all this to raise funds to support the quake victims because music is something that can bring countries and cultures together," said Salman Iqbal, president of local television channel ARY Digital and organiser of the event.

Iqbal said concert tickets have sold well despite costing 3,500 rupees (58 dollars) -- the average monthly wage of some teachers here.

Canadian high commissioner (ambassador), David Collins, said Canada was lucky to have people like Adams.

"We are proud of Bryan Adams not only for being a great singer but also for his humanitarian efforts to support humanity," he said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.