Roberta Lopes
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Yesterday (23), at the conclusion of the International High Level Meeting on Haiti, in Brasília, the Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, signed cooperation agreements with Argentina, Canada, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the World Bank (IBRD). The agreements are intended to help Haiti in the areas of food security, agriculture, health, and sports.

16 countries and 11 international organizations participated in the meeting for the purpose of reviewing, broadening, and expanding the framework of cooperation, including financial aspects, with Haiti.

According to the minister, the Brazilian troops assigned to Haiti will remain there until president René Préval's government has been strengthened. Brazil was the first country to send troops to compose the United Nations (UN) peace mission in Haiti, the MINUSTAH.

Ambassador Rui Nogueira, one of the coordinators of the meeting, informed that more than US$ 900 million of the US$ 2 billion pledged by the international community to Haiti have already been donated. He also said that a new conference of donors will occur in the second half of July in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

Translation: David Silberstein