Brasília, June 23, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Representatives of the world's most developed countries have demonstrated greater flexibility in accepting demands to release patents for medicines used in the treatment of diseases that devastate many poor countries. This observation was made by the Minister of Foreign Relations, Ambassador Celso Amorim, during the second day of meetings of the World Economic Forum, which is being held on the shore of the Dead Sea, in Jordan.

On this occasion, the Foreign Minister was received by King Abdallah II, to whom he delivered a letter from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. According to the Itamaraty office of communications, the King extended an invitation to Amorim for Lula to visit Jordan and said that a visit by the Brazilian President to his country would be a source of great pride.

The Ambassador expressed to Abdallah II the Brazilian government's interest in promoting a meeting of leaders of South American and Middle Eastern countries in 2004, to discuss the intensification of cooperation, as well as to exchange ideas on international issues that affect these two regions of the world.

Amorim also participated in the roundtable, Constructing Peace: Dialogue with Pacifists and Political Leaders. During this event, the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, told the Brazilian Ambassador that his country's President, Vladmir Putin, wants President Lula to participate in the discussions that Russia, the United States, and European Union, and the UN will hold in September, during the United Nations Conference on Middle East peace negotiations. (DAS)