Lula seeks regional integration

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is visiting two South American neighbours, Chile and Argentina, to strengthen bilateral relations.

Mr Lula will travel first to Santiago, where he is set to sign an agreement on the development of bio-fuels with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

The two leaders will also attend the World Economic Forum on Latin America.

Mr Lula will then travel to Buenos Aires for a meeting with his Argentine counterpart, Nestor Kirchner.

On the surface, it is a trip like any other - to strengthen relations and talk about shared problems.

But many will see it as part of a battle for dominance in the region between the Brazilian president and the Venezuelan leader.

Splits

A year or so ago, as one left-of-centre leader after another was voted into office across Latin America, there was a lot of talk about regional integration and of these divisive and often argumentative countries working together for the common good.

Leading the charge was the radical and controversial president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, with his country's huge oil wealth and his opposition, shared by many, to Washington's influence in the region.

Then the splits started to appear.

President Lula recently signed a deal with the US to jointly develop ethanol as an alternative fuel. Mr Chavez was incensed.

Most in the region want to stay on the right side of the Venezuelan president, but not at all costs.

Brazil, with by far the largest economy in the region, feels it should have stronger ties with its ideologically similar neighbours, Chile and Argentina.

And Lula's visits to Santiago and Buenos Aires will go some way to forging that much-talked-about regional integration, but with Brazil, not Venezuela, setting the pace.