straitstimes.asia1.com.sg

The comment triggers alarm although the new left-wing government says he was not expressing official policy

RIO DE JANEIRO - A senior official in the left-wing government that took power last week triggered alarm by arguing that Brazil should acquire the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.

'Brazil is a country at peace, that has always preserved peace and is a defender of peace, but we need to be prepared, including technologically,' said Mr Roberto Amaral, the newly appointed Minister of Science and Technology in an interview with the Brazilian service of the BBC that was broadcast on Sunday night. Advertisement

'We can't renounce any form of scientific knowledge, whether the genome, DNA or nuclear fission.'

His remarks, coming as the United States faces a nuclear crisis with North Korea and is preparing for war with Iraq over its weapons programmes, has reawakened debate over Brazil's own nuclear energy and research programme, the most advanced in Latin America.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was quick to distance the new president from Mr Amaral's pronouncement that 'mastery of the atomic cycle is important' to Brazil, saying that his remarks were not an expression of official policy.

'The government favours research in this area, solely and exclusively for peaceful purposes,' Mr Andre Singer told reporters in Brasilia.

Mr Luiz Pinguelli Rosa, Brazil's most prominent nuclear physicist and the newly appointed head of the state electrical power utility Eletrobras, said on Wednesday: 'Brazil does not have, does not need and should not obtain the knowledge of this technology. The bomb is a plague of mankind.'

But Mr Amaral's declarations echoed a certain discontent expressed by Mr da Silva as a candidate last year.

In a speech here in September, he criticised the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as unjustly favouring the United States and other nations that already had nuclear weapons, asking: 'If someone asks me to disarm and keep a slingshot while he comes at me with a cannon, what good does that do?'

Those remarks were made to a group of retired military officers, many of whom supported the ambitious nuclear programme undertaken by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985 and caused immediate alarm here.

The environmental organisation Greenpeace, for example, criticised Mr da Silva's position, as did groups of scientists here and abroad and even members of his own Workers' Party.

The Brazilian Constitution, promulgated in 1988, forbids the development of nuclear weapons and their presence here.--New York Times

news.ft.com By Stephen Fidler in London Published: January 11 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: January 11 2003 4:00

A withdrawal by North Korea from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) would deal a blow to an accord regarded by many as the cornerstone of efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons.

While the Bush administration has expressed its distaste for a number of multilateral treaties, the NPT, which came into force in 1970, is one that it favours.

This is in part because the treaty carves out a special category for the five countries - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - that had nuclear weapons before January 1 1967.

"North Korean withdrawal from the NPT could be the beginning of the unravelling of the treaty," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the non-proliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. "This is clearly the most serious proliferation threat that we face, much more serious than Iraq."

Mr Cirincione said the North Korean move posed two risks. It suggested a big change in the strategic equation in north-east Asia, raising questions about whether Japan and South Korea would obtain a nuclear deterrent.

Second, the restarting of plutonium production at the Yongbyon reactor could turn North Korea into a plutonium supermarket for others seeking the material.

The NPT is seen as the treaty that set the norm for non-proliferation. One of its strengths is its near universality: Cuba became the 188th party to the treaty on its accession last November.

The treaty has been credited with curbing the number of nuclear states, belying a common forecast in the 1960s that by the turn of the century there could be between 40 and 100 nuclear states. In fact, there are only eight.

The treaty was not the only factor: the development of effective alliances also meant technologically capable countries such as Germany and Japan were able to forgo a deterrent, under the US nuclear umbrella.

Yet arms control specialists insist the treaty was important in establishing a non-proliferation norm. Among countries with nuclear ambitions, South Africa - which admitted to building six nuclear bombs - signed the treaty in 1991, and Brazil and Argentina joined in the 1990s. Three of the four nuclear successor states to the Soviet Union - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine - also gave up their nuclear arms.

The prohibition in the NPT against the spreading of nuclear materials and technologies also meant that many countries that sought a nuclear deterrent were unable to overcome the main obstacle to nuclear bomb production: the manufacture of the uranium or plutonium needed for its core.

One important weakness of the NPT though has been the existence of three nuclear states that have never acceded to it: Israel, which was joined overtly by India and Pakistan after their nuclear tests in 1998.

If it follows through on its threat to withdraw, something it threatened in 1993, North Korea would bea fourth. Any member can withdraw with 90 days' notice if the "supreme interests of its country" are jeopardised.

North Korea signed the treaty in 1985 under Soviet pressure. A special arrangement for North Korea under the NPT was negotiated in 1994 which deferred for a decade the question of whether North Korea was complying with the treaty.

Rightwing commentators in Washington have already argued that the US should respond to North Korea by encouraging Japan to develop its own nuclear deterrent. This, one argument goes, would encourage China to exert its full influence to stop North Korea developing nuclear weapons.

www.guardian.co.uk Alex Bellos in Rio de Janeiro Saturday January 11, 2003 The Guardian

President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and 30 of his cabinet colleagues began a two-day visit yesterday to some of Brazil's poorest areas.

It has been dubbed the president's Misery Tour and is aimed at showing ministers the extent of hardship in the country.

The political caravan is the new leader's first official trip since he took office last week and a symbolic gesture to show that his government's priority is to fight hunger and poverty.

He has given each of his ministers 15 days to come up with proposals to redress poverty, and has set up a new ministry specifically to combat hunger.

For Lula, as he is universally known, it is a journey back to his roots.

He was born and raised in the impoverished semi-arid north-east of the country.

The tour began yesterday in Irma Dulce, near the north-east city of Teresina, which is thought to be one of the biggest shantytowns in Latin America

Lula spoke to and mixed with a crowd of about 3,500 there.

The party then flew to Recife. Today the tour continues to impoverished areas in the state of Minas Gerais.

Lula introduced his ministers as "comrades" and said that they would work together to end poverty. "My job is not do promise but to do," he said.

The loudest cheer went to the culture minister, Gilberto Gil, who is also from the north-east and is one of Brazil's most successful pop stars.

Lula said he had seen a four-year-old child with an arm that was "thinner than my finger".

"This means malnutrition, and this is what we will fight against," he said.

"Don't think that I can change everything with a magic wand but let's work against this situation."

He walked for about 400 metres through the shantytown and visited the home of a 23-year-old woman with three children who lives on less than £10 a month. She asked him for working materials to help improve her home.

Last week Lula became the first working-class president in Brazilian history. His inauguration brought unprecedented crowds to the capital Brasilia and has created an exciting climate of political change.

The Misery Tour was originally aimed at remoter regions but the route was changed at the last minute when it was realised that the high cost of would go against the spirit of helping the poor.

Ana Toni, Brazil director of Action Aid, said Lula's decision to show his ministers the reality of Brazilian life was an important symbolic gesture.

"For the first time in Brazilian history the fight against poverty is a government priority and not an add-on policy."

"Ninety-nine per cent of middle-class Brazilians have never seen this type of poverty. Lula is giving his ministers a reality check."

www.heraldtribune.com By ADALID CABRERA LEMUZ Associated Press Writer

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva swore last year that if elected, he would bring his cabinet ministers face to face with the poverty that afflicts a third of all Brazilians. On Friday, he made good on that promise.

Mobbed by adoring crowds, Silva and 30 of his ministers walked down the narrow paths past the mud huts of the Irma Dulce shantytown, shaking hands and sharing hugs. Sweating in the intense heat, Silva promised residents he would work hard to ease their misery through government programs to end hunger and provide clean water.

"I cannot promise that all your problems will be solved from one day to the next," Silva told a crowd of about 5,000 residents of the favela, as shantytowns are known here. "But I do promise that a lot can and will be done."

Silva's visit was a powerful symbol to a country where the gap between rich and poor is among the widest in the world. It was the first time in recent memory that a sitting president visited a favela, and the scene was broadcast live on national television.

"Most of us voted for him because we have faith that he will be able to solve our problems," said Zilma Silva, who is not related to the president. "It is horrible to live in a country where so many people don't have anything to eat."

Silva, like most of the 30,000 people who live in the Irma Dulce favela, gets by on her husband's monthly wage of $66. She has no running water.

For Silva, who grew up in a Sao Paulo favela, it was something of a homecoming.

"I saw a four-year-old boy whose arms were thinner than my finger," Silva said. "This means he has nothing to eat and probably has learning difficulties because of a lack of vitamins. This is what we will change."

The former metal worker who rose to fame organizing strikes against the country's 1964-85 military regime became Brazil's first working class president after being elected in a landslide on Oct. 27. It was his fourth try.

The trip was originally designed to kick off Silva's "Zero Hunger" program, which seeks to eradicate hunger among the estimated 54 million Brazilians who live on a dollar a day or less.

The launch of the anti-hunger program was put off until February - a fact that did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds that turned out to greet Silva.

Jose Graziano, who heads the program, said the visit demonstrated the government's determination to "improve the peoples' quality of life, no matter what it takes."

Graziano has said the government would spend about $1.5 billion on the program this year alone, and that the amount could grow with donations or loans from sources outside Brazil.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.10.03, 1:40 PM ET

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's second largest private bank, Banco Itau <ITAU4.SA> (nyse: ITU - news - people), said it sold $125 million in 11-month Eurobonds on Friday, more than twice the initial amount offered.

The bonds were sold at a coupon of 6.25 percent, offering a yield of 6.375 percent, the bank said in a statement. The sale was conducted by Itau's agency in Grand Cayman.

Itau added it will use the funds, which are expected to be received on Jan. 17, as export financing and to beef up its cash flow at the Grand Cayman unit.

With the sale, Itau becomes the latest in a wave of Brazilian banks to capitalize on rebounding investor confidence in Latin America's largest economy since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office on New Year's Day.

Earlier Friday, one of Itau's main competitors, Unibanco <UBBR4.SA>(nyse: UBB - news - people), sold a $100-million one-year bond, while Banco Safra issued a $150-million six-month bond, raising $50 million more than initially expected.

In all, six Brazilian banks have now sold bonds in international markets so far this year, totaling $875 million.

International capital markets largely shut their doors to Brazilian companies in the middle of last year amid worries the the left-leaning Lula would win presidential elections in October and bungle the economy.

But since winning the election, Lula has repeatedly pledged to stick to austere fiscal policies, winning the former union boss applause from investors who once doubted his commitment to sound economics.