MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A long agenda awaits Rice in Brazil

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives Tuesday in Brasilia for the first leg of a brief tour of the increasingly volatile Latinamerica that also includes Chile, Colombia and El Salvador.

Ms. Rice is expected to praise Brazilian president Lula da Silva for his country's active diplomacy in the region, playing crucial roles in the Haiti peace effort and in the current Ecuadorian political crisis. Brazil granted Ecuadorian president Lucio Gutierrez territorial asylum helping to partly defuse violent street protests in Quito.

Another area where Ms. Rice is anticipated will request support from Brazil is in curtailing the ever "destabilising" influence of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez whom Washington accuses of using oil dollars to support insurgent movements in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.

President Lula da Silva as a former union leader has managed to present himself as an ally of both Washington and Caracas. Mr. Chavez considers him part of a left wing axis in the region comprising Fidel Castro, Brazil, Argentine leader Nestor Kirchner and Uruguay's recently arrived Socialist president Tabare Vazquez.

Besides Brazil has signed several strategic agreements covering energy, transport and infrastructure with Venezuela, but has also urged Mr. Chavez to moderate his political stance. Furthermore Brazil was a sponsor of the "Venezuela friends" group that helped restore calm following an aborted coup against Mr. Chavez in 2002, which is widely suspected was supported by Washington.

Brazil on the other hand is expected to request US support for the country's bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

"Brazil has an interest in a permanent seat in the Security Council because we want to have influence. And influence is power. We want to influence among the powerful", stressed Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim.

Brazilian diplomacy forecasts that Security Council expansion will be decided next September during the UN General Assembly, but it means ensuring before hand that none of the current members (US, UK, France, Russia and China) will veto Brazil's bid. For Brazilian diplomacy Ms. Rice visit is an excellent moment to advance the issue.

However Brazil does not necessarily have the full support of the region since Argentina believes that the Latinamerican seat in the Security Council should be rotated.

An area of contention will also be in the agenda: the election of the next Organization of American States Secretary General. A post for which Brazil has intensively lobbied in favour of the Chilean candidate, Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza, while United States is supporting the Mexican nominee.

Another issue is the talks for the US sponsored Free Trade Association extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego which remain stalled since Brazil's policy has been to privilege Mercosur and the South American Community of nations.