Bush to sign biofuels pact with Brazilian leader

US President George Bush sees a new agreement with Brazil on ethanol as a way to boost alternative fuels production in the Americas and get more cars running on something other than petrol.

Demonstrators upset with Bush’s visit worry that the president and his biofuels buddy, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, really have visions of an Opec-like cartel on ethanol.

While Bush’s nemesis in Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is using his vast oil wealth to court allies in the region, Bush is sealing the deal today on an ethanol agreement with Brazil where nearly eight in 10 new cars run on fuel made from sugar cane.

Brazil is the first stop on Bush’s eighth trip to Latin America, which also includes visits to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. On his 45-minute ride from the airport to his hotel last night, Bush’s motorcade sped by a dozen or so fuel stations where drivers in the traffic-clogged city can pump either petrol or ethanol.

Bystanders gawked at Mr Bush’s limousine, but only a few people waved. Anti-American sentiment runs high in Brazil, especially over the war in Iraq. Bush missed the demonstrations earlier in the day protesting against his visit.

Riot police fired tear gas and beat some protesters with batons after more than 6,000 people held a largely peaceful march through the financial district of Sao Paulo. About 4,000 agents, including Brazilian troops and FBI and US Secret Service officers, are working to secure Mr Bush’s stay in the city that lasts about 24 hours.

Authorities did not disclose the number of injuries in yesterday’s demonstrations, but Brazilian news media said at least 18 people were hurt and news photographs showed injured people being carried away.

Undeterred by protests, Mr Bush says he’s on a goodwill tour to talk about making sure the benefits of democracy – in the form of better housing, health care and education – are available to all Latin Americans, not just the wealthy.

He’s visiting a community centre in a neighbourhood where the ultra rich live in close proximity to the desperately poor. US companies have donated equipment to the centre where Bush plans to highlight programmes to give poor and disadvantaged youth a way forward in life.

In Latin America, however, Bush’s trip is widely viewed as a way for the president to counter the influence of Chavez, the populist ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who has led a leftward political shift in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

To taunt Mr Bush, the Venezuelan leader will speak at an “anti-imperialist” rally in a soccer stadium tomorrow in Buenos Aires, Argentina, about 40 miles across the Plate River from Montevideo, where Mr Bush will meet Uruguay’s president, Tabare Vazquez.