São Paulo, June 15, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - Yesterday (14) the Venezuelan Chancellor, Jesus Perez, defended the suggestion made by his country's President, Hugo Chávez, for the creation of a Latin American petroleum organization, to be called PetroAmerica, uniting the region's principal exporters. "Multinational, yes. But state-owned," he said.

Perez expects to return to Brazil in the second half of August, he said, to begin bilateral negotiations to facilitate, at least, the exchange of citizens between the two countries. The decision arose after an encounter with the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, during the 11th meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI).

The Minister said that he regards the rise in oil prices as temporary. "A proof of this is that the Organization of Exporting Countries, the OPEC, raised its production and the price did not fall. It is not a question of supply and demand," he affirmed. In his opinion, the war on Iraq scared the buyers, who are "cowards."

Reporter: André Deak
Translator: David Silberstein