Brasília, October 13, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - On Thursday (9), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered that the suggestion made by the UN special reporter on Summary Executions, Asma Jahangir, to call for an international inspection of the Brazilian Judiciary should be regarded as an "opportunity for the national magistracy to display its virtues and defects."

Through his spokesman, André Singer, the President recalled that Brazilian society has been aware of the limitations of the judicial branch for a long time and that for many years he has been calling for reforms to bring the judicial branch closer to the society. "The idea that the Judiciary is in need of reform is not new. The fact that the UN representative said should would like to send somebody to learn more about the judicial branch should be seen as a great chance to exhibit these qualities and deficiencies," he said.

The President denied the existence of a crisis between Ministries with respect to the Administration's foreign policy. According to Singer, everything the Ministers have done in order to establish a new international negotiating policy - especially for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) - is done in harmony with guidelines traced by the President himself. "The Brazilian position has followed the President's orientation from the time he took office: to use pragmatism and firmness to obtain the best conditions for Brazil. Brazil has conducted the dialogue with our partners with competence and realism," the spokesman declared. (DAS)