"The one thing I feel ashamed about is having been on all those locations, where there is desperate poverty," the 007 actor told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost.

"All I was worried about was my dinner suit looking smart, is there a mark on my shirt, where is the nearest toilet, I was worrying what we're going to have for lunch.

"I was not really being aware of what was going on in the world."

Sir Roger received a knighthood on Saturday in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours.

Raising the eyebrow for Bond was one thing but raising awareness for children is much more important Sir Roger Moore Profile: Roger Moore

He said the knighthood was for his work with the United Nations' children's fund Unicef, rather than for his seven Bond films or other acting work.

"Raising the eyebrow for Bond, or the Saint, was one thing but raising awareness for children is much more important," he said.

And he described how he had been introduced to Unicef in 1991, at a press conference held by US actress Audrey Hepburn.

Iodine project

"She spoke with tremendous passion about the plight of children. She would never let them [the press] get back to movies, she kept on the issues that were facing children then, and still face children today."

He said 40,000 children died each day in 1991, and now that figure was still as high as 28,000.

He said his work to combat this had involved "visiting various projects, water projects, health projects, and also fundraising, awareness".

A project he was particularly keen on was a programme to ensure people worldwide had enough iodine in their diet, to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders including stillbirth and dwarfism.

Sir Roger recalled some of the worst things he had seen during his confrontations with poverty around the world.

He said he would always remember the "smell" of poverty.

It's something you don't see when you see the images on television or on the cinema screen, the absolute appalling smell of poverty Sir Roger Moore Moore on his mission for Unicef

"It's something you don't see when you see the images on television or on the cinema screen, the absolute appalling smell of poverty.

"It's not because people don't wash, it's just it is there, it sort of gets into your system. You know that you're going to smell it."

He said another frightening smell was "the small of burning flesh - and that remains with the victim for many, many years".

"I remember going to a hospital in Salvador, and I was about a quarter of a mile away and I could smell - I knew exactly what I was going to see.

"I was going to see the same sights I had seen at East Grinstead, visiting the burns hospital. Except the facilities weren't quite so good in Salvador."

Aids situation

Sir Roger said the two sights that would remain with him most involved a child and an elderly lady.

"To see a child without arms, her body having been destroyed by a landmine. That remains.

They were grubbing in the ground getting roots, and the old people ate the roots - if they survived the children could then eat them Sir Roger Moore describing a visit to Zambia

"An old lady's watery eyes as she looked at me in Zambia last year, and she said 'we used to live like human beings and now we live like animals'.

"They were grubbing in the ground getting roots, and the old people ate the roots. If they survived the children could then eat them.

"There were no middle-aged people, there were no people to plant. They were dead or they were incapacitated by HIV/Aids.

"It's a frightening situation throughout Africa, the HIV/Aids system."

Sir Roger said he planned to continue working with Unicef for as long as he could.