Brasília, 10/27/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Today is president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 58th birthday and he will be celebrating it by opening the 22nd International Socialist conference. The organization, founded in 1889, consists of 150 political institutions from around the world, including the main European socialist, social-democrat and labor parties. It is expected that 50 heads of state and government will attend.

At the moment, the president of the International Socialist is former Portugues prime minister, Antonio Guterrez, who has announced that the organization is interested in actively participating in the Brazilian government's Zero Hunger program in one way or another. Guterrez has pointed out that the International Socialist has experience with similar programs in Portugal and the European Union.

Other topics of discussion at the meeting will be UN reform, the international financial system, integration models, strengthening democratic institutions, human rights, challenges in international trade and the solution of foreign conflicts.

The secretary general of the organization, Luis Ayala, who is from Chile, said that the decision to hold the meeting in Brazil was made because of the election of Lula, although his political party, the PT - Worker's Party - is not an affiliated organization. The only Brazilian political party that is a member of the International Socialist is the PDT.

While he is at the meeting, Lula will hold talks with various leaders. Among them the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, the Cabo Verde prime minister, Jose Maria Neves, and former prime minister of Spain, Felipe Gonzalez. Lula will also meet the first secretary of the French socialist party, François Holande, the Foreign Minister of Hungry, Laszlo Kovacs and the secretary general of the Democratici di Sinistra, Piero Fassino. (AB)