Buenos Aires, December 2, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reaffirmed today his administration's intention to give "a decisive push to the reconstruction of the Mercosur." In his speech at the official residence of Olivos, in Argentina, where he was received for approximately 40 minutes by Argentine president, Eduardo Duhalde, Lula also said that in the elections on October 27 the Brazilian people expressed their desire for profound economic, social, and political changes.

"Brazil can no longer accept being one of the ten largest economies in the world and, at the same time, a nation in which tens of millions of human beings go hungry and live on the margins of production, consumption, and full citizenship," he said. Lula pointed out that the two countries possess important industrial centers, a prosperous and diversified agriculture, as well as natural resources and multiple energy sources. (DAS)