MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil welcomes Kirchner as Argentina's next president.

Brazil is pleased that Nestor Kirchner will be Argentina's next president and hopes that with him as leader, the two nations' bilateral “strategic alliance will advance considerably,” Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said here Thursday.

"The president-elect has already said he would give priority to Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market) and to relations with Brazil, so (his election) can only give us satisfaction," said Amorim at the end of a ceremony at the ministry.

Kirchner, one of three candidates to run for the Peronist Party, will be proclaimed president-elect of Argentina by default after his rival and fellow Peronist, former President Carlos Menem, withdrew from the runoff set for Sunday.

Last week, Kirchner visited the Brazilian capital to meet with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, assuring him that if elected, he would give priority to Mercosur and South American integration over efforts to create the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Amorim emphasized Brazil's confidence that with Kirchner heading the Argentine government, the bilateral strategic alliance between the two nations "will advance considerably." "We hope to be able to achieve everything that Mercosur deserves and to advance in many issues that have been neglected," Amorim added.

Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay are full members of Mercosur, Latin America's largest trade bloc, while Bolivia and Chile are associate members.