São Paulo - Nothing has been signed, but with the final project scheduled for June, discussions regarding the route of the Great Southern Gas Pipeline (Grande Gasoduto Sul), which will link Venezuela-Brazil-Argentina, have begun in earnest, says the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. He made the comment yesterday following meetings with presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Néstor Kirchner, of Argentina, in São Paulo.

One proposal is for the pipeline to leave Venezuela and run south through the heart of the Amazon region to Manaus (AM) and then east to Fortaleza (CE) on Brazil's Atlantic coast where it would then follow the coastline down to Rio and São Paulo and, eventually, Argentina. Another proposal would have the pipeline cut through central Brazil, from Venezuela to Manaus to Brasilia, and then to São Paulo, before reaching Argentina.

"We are already mapping possible routes from the air," says Chavez.

The gas pipeline will stretch for more than 10,000 kilometers [translator's note: the world's longest operating pipeline, known as Druzhba, which pumps oil from southeastern Russia into western Europe, is 4,000 kilometers long. Another oil pipeline that is under construction, running from Siberia to the Sea of Japan, will be 4,200 kilometers long].

Translation: Allen Bennett