Brasilia In Summit Mode
The South American-Arabian Summit totally dominates Brasilia, with the beginning on Monday of a bi-regional business seminar with 1,250 assistants, and a meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the 34 participating countries.

By the end of the opening day, 10 of the 17 expected Heads of State had arrived, and other countries will be represented by Vice Presidents, Foreign Ministers and other officials.

Security is high at seminar venues, hotels and main thoroughfares, and there are many foreigners in restaurants, hotels, and around the city.

President Luiz Inacio (Lula) da Silva celebrated meetings with the Prime Ministers of Syria and Lebanon, Mohammad Naji Al Otri and Nagig Mikati, and with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority.

Lula has invited the Presidents of Argentina and Venezuela, Nestor Kirchner and Hugo Chavez to dinner, during which differences between Argentina and Brazil, and aspects of the strategic alliance created by the three countries in March, are expected to be discussed.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim received his colleagues from Algeria, Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, Suriname and Sudan before meeting with all of the Heads of Satte to discuss the final statement that should result from the summit.

The business meetings to take place until May 11 will be attended by 1,250 entrepreneurs, of whom 1,000 are from Brazil and other Latin American countries.

Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Luiz Fernando Furlan said Brazilian trade with Arabian countries, although growing 50 percent to reach 8 billion dollars, could keep on growing up to 15 billion.

His statement was confirmed by Antonio Sarkis, president of the Arabian-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, who said Arabian countries are interested in bringing investments to Brazil, mainly in infrastructure, and they also want to increase imports of agricultural machinery, buses and surgical equipment, and build plants for processing combustible alcohol.

In return, they want to increase their export of phosphate and food, oil, and specifically Algeria is interested in production of alcohol, and an agreement with Brazilian enterprise Petrobras for deep water oil exploration.

Algerian Trade Minister, and representative of the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League Hacheni Djaaboub, said that to increase trade between the two regions, it is necessary to eliminate barriers for entry and output of investments in both regions of the world.

One of the points in debate is transport, since there are no direct lines by air or sea between South America and the Middle East