Lula, Chavez meeting shows confidence, not distancing, between the two leaders

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela met Friday for a brief exchange of views and signed 15 economic accords including an agreement on exchanging electricity supplies, officials said. The meeting was the latest of a regular series of three-monthly talks aimed at forging closer economic ties between the two countries, officials said.

Other accords covered natural gas, agriculture, industry, telecommunications, and food supply, French news agency AFP reported. Lula's visit was scheduled to last about five hours, officials said.

Chavez met Lula with a warm embrace on the steps of Miraflores presidential palace, after which Lula inspected a military guard of honor. Chavez' welcome was attended by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez Araque and Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, who is also head of the state oil corporation Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

Maduro told reporters that the meeting would allow for the "consolidation of confidence between both countries" at a time when it was being suggested that there had been a "distancing" between the two presidents. Discreet talk in diplomatic circles has it that Lula has in the past bluntly advised Chavez to lower the volume of his comments about, and tone down his attitude towards, the governments of other countries, not least the Bush Administration in Washington.

Lula was accompanied during his visit by Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao, Development Minister Miguel Jorge, and presidential international adviser Marco Aurelio Garcia. The head of the state oil corporation, Petrobras, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, was present as a member of a delegation of Brazilian business executives.

Lula recently chided Petrobras and PDVSA for not making more headway towards joint projects, chief among them a refinery to process 200,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil at Pernambuco in north-east Brazil. Brazil is Venezuela's third largest trading partner after the United States and Colombia. Bilateral trade with Brazil totaled more than $4 billion in 2007.

Hopes of boosting Venezuela's oil trade with Brazil went under a cloud after Petrobras announced a giant offshore oil and natural gas find earlier this year. Whether non-economic issues were also on the agenda remained unclear. There'd been speculation the two presidents would discuss ways of cooperating in efforts to secure the release of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The best-known of the hostages is the Franco-Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Chavez also met former French Premier Dominique de Villepin on Friday morning.