Salvador - By the middle of this year Brazil will have a program for prevention of, and response to, environmental emergencies, reports Claudio Langoni, the executive secretary at the Ministry of Environment.

The program will be linked with the ministry's Environmental Protection Agency (Ibama) and one of its principal features will be a highly trained staff capable of doing the right thing at the right time - and doing it quickly.

Langoni says another goal will be to provide the public with precise, timely information so that panic will be avoided. (AB)