Brasília – This morning, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit two municipalities in the state of Pernambuco. First, in Ipojuca, where the industrial center and port of Suape are located, he will join the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, to lay the cornerstone for the petroleum refinery General José Ignácio Abreu e Lima (a Brazilian who participated in the South American wars of independence). It is estimated that the cost of new refinery will be US$2.5 billion, with the funding to be equally divided between Brazil's state-run Petrobras, and Venezuela's PDVSA. The refinery, the first to be built in Brazil in 20 years, is scheduled to begin operations in 2011 with a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day.

In the afternoon, Lula will inaugurate a professional training school in Garanhuns. The school costs R$3 million and has a capacity for 240 students. The school is named Euridice Ferreira de Melo Lindú, in honor of the president's mother.

Translation: Allen Bennett