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Brazilian president's African biofuel trip

October 12, 2007 Edition 1

Brazil's president will promote Africa's "vast agricultural frontier" as a potential heartland for alternative fuels during a visit to the continent next week, a foreign ministry official said yesterday.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to help Africa develop biofuels as a way to ease poverty.

Brazil, the world leader in developing ethanol from sugarcane, is already working with African crop scientists in Ghana.

Silva comes to Africa on Sunday, where he will visit the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, South Africa and Angola.

"The issue of biofuels is the president's general priority …" said Roberto Jaguaribe, the foreign ministry's subsecretary of policy, "… Africa has a vast agricultural frontier" to cultivate alternative fuels.

In South Africa, Silva will attend a meeting of the so-called IBSA group made up of India, Brazil and South Africa to discuss issues before the World Trade Organisation.

The three nations have taken the lead in calling for the US and other industrialised countries to make significant cuts in farm subsidies in global trade talks. - Sapa-AP

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