By Anthony Boadle Tue Jan 15, 4:55 PM ET
HAVANA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered
Cuba millions of dollars in credit on Tuesday and committed Brazil to
help the communist-run country explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
But it was not immediately clear whether the leftist former labor leader
achieved his cherished goal of meeting ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro
during a 24-hour visit, his second to Cuba as president of Latin
America's largest nation.
The 81-year-old Castro has not appeared in public since undergoing
stomach surgery that forced him to hand over the running of Cuba to his
brother Raul in July 2006.
Brazilian officials said Brazil has the resources, technology and
diplomatic clout to help Cuba as it approaches a crucial moment of its
history without Fidel at the helm.
Lula dined with acting President Raul Castro after arriving in Havana on
Monday night and met on Tuesday at the Palace of the Revolution
government house where the two countries signed a slew of agreements to
bolster economic ties.
Brazil's export financing agency COFIG announced approval of credit for
food purchases and for the expansion and overhaul of the Che Guevara
nickel mine, one of three that produce Cuba's main export commodity.
Brazil is offering Cuba up to $1 billion in credit lines to pay for
Brazilian goods and services in such areas as road building, the sugar
industry, the biotechnology and hotels.
That includes $600 million for road building.
PETROBRAS COMMITS ITSELF
Cuba secured the commitment of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras to
explore for oil in the deep-sea Cuban water of the Gulf of Mexico where
six foreign oil firms have already contracted 24 of 59 blocks.
Petrobras president Jose Sergio Gabrielli told reporters the Brazilian
giant, a world leader in off-shore drilling, was acquiring and analyzing
seismological data and had yet to identify which blocks it would sign
risk contracts for.
Petrobras and the Cuban state oil company CUPET agreed to study the
formation of a joint venture to build a lubricants plant in Cuba, a
project that has been discussed for years.
The one concrete agreement to emerge from Lula's visit was the licensing
of Cuban interferon to Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation for tropical
medicine research.
Lula planned to meet later Tuesday with some of the 600 Brazilians
studying to be doctors in Cuba. The Cuban degree is not recognized in
Brazil, but his government will set up additional courses and exams at
Brazilian universities to allow the Cuban-trained doctors to practice
when they return home.
The influential Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper praised the credit splurge
for Cuba in a editorial, saying it would pave the way for Brazilian
companies to take part in Cuba's necessary modernization and reform process.
A Brazilian foreign ministry official said Brazil, Mexico and Canada --
countries with good ties to the United States yet critical of its trade
embargo against Havana -- could ease a painful process of change
expected in Cuba.
"We want to see Cuba back in the fold and can provide the Cubans with a
level of comfort in the transition ahead by not being confrontational
like the United States," he said.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Philip Barbara)
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