Brazil's President Lula pledges closer ties with Libya
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday vowed to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with Libya.

President Lula made the remarks when meeting with Libyan leader Mouammar Gadhafi. The two leaders met in the Nigerian capital of Abuja prior to the Africa-South America summit, which gathered representatives from nations of the two continents.

Lula said Libya had been moving toward democratization, adding that Brazil had great commercial ties with the African country.

"For instance, some Brazilian companies are interested in the reconstruction of Libya's capital of Tripoli," said Lula.

Brazil's state-owned Petrobras and other companies from the South American state were also targeting shares in oil and gas production which would soon be opened up to foreign investors by the Libyan government.

Lula also defended the meeting with Gadhafi, saying that "when the British prime minister has a meeting with Gadhafi, everyone finds it great, but when I do the same thing, everyone criticizes it."