MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil further suspends Air Force shopping.

Brazil could delay another three or four years the purchase of twelve new fighter bombers for the Air Force, according to Brazilian vice-president Jose Alencar.

"We're in no hurry to acquire new aircrafts and it could even be to our advantage to wait for technological advances in this field, instead of buying aircrafts that could quickly become obsolete", said Mr. Alencar.

However the vice-president pointed out that the final decision belonged to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The purchase of new fighter bombers for the Brazilian Air Force, a deal involving over 700 million US dollars, was one of the issues in the bilateral agenda addressed last Monday by Mr. Lula da Silva and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

According to the Brazilian press, the Russian Sukhoi SU-35 from the Rosoboronexoport consortium has a great chance of winning the bid against the US made Lockheed Martin F 16 and the French-Brazilian Dassault-Embraer Mirage 2000 Gripen.

The bid for the acquisition of new aircrafts was actually started under former president Henrique Fernando Cardoso (1995/2002), but the process was suspended in 2003 with the new administration of President Lula da Silva who decided to use the resources for other immediate social needs.

However the process resumed in mid 2003 and defence analysts were expecting some announcement this week during the Russian president's visit to Brazil.