
The bill governing the capitalization of Brazilian energy giant Petrobras was approved Wednesday by President Lula da Silva. It is the first step to establish the new regulatory framework for exploiting crude oil under the pre-salt layer of the continental seabed of Brazil.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his first-ever tour of Latin America proposed a free trade agreement with Mercosur after meeting Wednesday in Brasilia with his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva and giving a conference at the Foreign Ministry seat in Itamaraty Palace.

Brazilian presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff promised, if elected, that President Lula da Silva (and mentor) will be her advisor to help with all the reforms the country still needs to address.

The association agreement between the European Union and Mercosur has to go “beyond tariffs and subsidies”, said Brazilian president addressing businessmen from Brazil and a visiting Italian delegation headed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, expressed his support for the idea that Brazilian President Lula da Silva should run for president once again in the Brazilian presidential elections of 2014.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva said on Tuesday he expects the four Mercosur countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to meet in the semi-finals of the World Cup in South Africa.

Brazil’s credit rating outlook was boosted to positive from stable by Fitch Ratings, which cited the country’s “growth dynamics” and “prudent” policies. Fitch rates Brazil BBB-, the lowest investment-grade rating and in line with rankings from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva has cancelled plans to attend the G-20 economic summit in Toronto, Canada after flooding in the northeast of the country left at least 51 people dead and 120,000 others homeless.

Brazil’s incumbent candidate Dilma Rousseff took the lead in the country’s presidential race, according to a new poll. Rousseff, President Lula da Silva’s former cabinet chief, is supported by 40% of those surveyed, according to an Ibope poll for the National Industrial Confederation, or CNI, that was published Wednesday in Brasilia.

Brazil will be ready to control the whole industrial cycle of uranium processing, from extraction of the radioactive mineral to its final conversion into fuel, in large volumes, by the end of the year, according to military sources.