Agência Brasil

Brasília - Brazil's minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, is participating in the Ministerial Conference on Innovative Development Financing Mechanisms, which ends today (1) in Paris, France. One of the main objectives of the conference, which has drawn together representatives of various countries, is to discuss mechanisms to combat global hunger and poverty.

The Brazilian chancellor will attend two sessions of debates today before the concluding ceremony. Afterwards he is expected to join the French minister of Foreign Affairs, Philippe Douste-Blazy, in a collective interview. At night he will meet with the French Foreign Trade representative, minister Christine Lagarde.

The Paris Conference, which began yesterday (28), is an offshoot of the International Campaign Against Hunger and Poverty, a political initiative launched in 2004 by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in conjunction with the heads of state and government of France, Chile, Spain, Germany, and Algeria.

The topics discussed at the two-day encounter cover proposals for the creation of an airplane ticket solidarity levy on flights abroad, the establishment of taxes on international financial flows, and the fight against tax havens.

Part of the revenues from an eventual airplane ticket levy would be used to create an international drug purchase facility to combat AIDS and other diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

Translation: David Silberstein