Brazil's President Addresses World Forum

www.guardian.co.uk Sunday January 26, 2003 5:40 PM

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - To applause and cheers, Brazil's new leftist president appeared Sunday before the elite economic conference he once scorned and called for a massive drive to defeat poverty and hunger across the globe.

``My greatest desire is that the hope that has overcome fear in my country will also help vanquish it around the world,'' Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told a hundreds of delegates at the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of corporate and political leaders.

``I would like to invite all of you that are here, on this 'Magic Mountain' of Davos, to look at the world with other eyes,'' he said, in a reference to the classic novel by Thomas Mann set in Davos.

He said called for Western governments and big investors to create a global fund to fight poverty and hunger around the world.

Countries are spending billions and billions of dollars in an arms race and spending money on things that are not priorities,'' Silva said. We look at the third world countries and millions and millions of women and children die because they don't manage to eat the calories they need.''

Silva said he was bringing with him the same message that he gave on Friday to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, billed as a grass-roots counterpoint to the Davos event.

Joking with the crowd after his address, the charismatic former revolutionary said ``the most fantastic thing'' was that he was going back to Porto Alegre in one piece.

My comrades will notice that you haven't taken a bite out of me,'' he said. Nor have I taken a bite out of you. I think there is room for us to get together to talk.''

The son of a poor farmer, Silva dropped out of school to help support his family and became a symbol of hope for Latin America's impoverished millions after his landslide election in October.

Silva said he saw no reason why participants at the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum could not come together to learn from each other.

This is like a simple negotiation between a labor unionist and an employer,'' he said. Once they sit at the bargaining table, we can see there are many topics that can be improved so we can reach an agreement,'' he said.

Silva also called on rich nations to open up their markets to imports from poorer nations.

``All the export effort that we make will be useless if countries continue to preach free trade on one side and practice protectionism on the other side,'' he said.

Other events at the World Economic Forum on Sunday:

• U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that without strong international action to disarm, Iraq could use its lethal weapons or share its technology with terrorists. ``The nexus of tyrants and terror, of terrorists and weapons of mass terror, is the greatest danger of our age,'' he said.

• Powell indicated that the United States is willing to take additional steps to respond to North Korea's concerns about a possible U.S. military attack. He reaffirmed that the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea and said it is prepared to ``convey this in a way that will make this unmistakable to North Korea.''

• Powell urged India and Pakistan to ``both take risks for peace'' and end years of tension and distrust. Powell said the United States had helped calm tensions last year when the nuclear-armed rivals came close to war over disputed Kashmir and an attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, and said Washington was ready to do more.

• Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced a $200 million grant Sunday to help identify and solve the ``grand challenges in global health'' - including the AIDS virus and malaria - that the private sector has little financial incentive to tackle.