AFP (with additional material by Reuters and AP). 2 January 2003. 'Axis
of Good' for Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela.

BRASILIA -- Breakfast with Hugo Chavez, dinner with Fidel Castro.

The first day in office for Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, projects the image of a leftist alliance in Latin America -- one
that  Chavez, Venezuela's president, has already nicknamed the "Axis of
Good."

Such an alliance could hinder U.S. efforts to create a Free Trade Area
of the  Americas stretching from Alaska to the tip of Argentina by
2005. By giving Latin America's other two leftist leaders such a warm
welcome a day  after his inauguration, Lula gets huge political mileage
in Brazil, where  Castro and Chavez are revered by the far left of his
party.

At the breakfast meeting, Chavez asked Lula to send technical experts
from  Brazil's state-owned oil company to replace some of the 30,000
Venezuelan  state oil workers who have joined a crippling nationwide
strike. Lula said he  would consider the request.

During his breakfast with Lula, Chavez also brought up the idea of
increasing  cooperation among Latin American state-owned oil industries
and set up a  company called Petro-America.
"It would become a sort of Latin American OPEC," Chavez said. "It would
start  with Venezuela's PDVSA and Brazil's Petrobras," and could come
to include  Ecopetrol from Colombia, PetroEcuador from Ecuador, and
PetroTrinidad from  Trinidad and Tobago."

Chavez told reporters that South American integration was "vital" for
Brazil-Venezuela relations.

Talks in the next few days would establish what form the cooperation
between  the two countries would take.
Lula "has shown full support from Brazil to Venezuela," while Venezuela
also  shows its full support for Brazil, Chavez told reporters after
the meeting.

Last week, Cardoso's outgoing administration sent a tanker to Venezuela
carrying 520,000 barrels of gasoline, but that barely dented shortages
around  the country.

And before dining Thursday night with Lula, Castro told Associated
Press  Television News that Brazilian-Cuban relations will grow
stronger now that  Brazil has its first elected leftist president.
"I wished on January 1st what could be wished to our beloved brother,"
Castro  said. "Cuba loves Lula very much and feels very happy."

Castro and Chavez had front-row seats in Congress at Lula's
inauguration  Wednesday, where an estimated 200,000 Brazilians waved
red flags. Many were  dressed in red and white clothes, the colors of
Silva's Workers Party.

The Cuban and Venezuelan leaders had dinner together, and talked until
4 a.m.  Thursday at the Brasilia hotel where Castro is staying.

Chavez coined the "Axis of Good" term after Silva was elected in
October,  hailing the victory and saying Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba
should team up to  fight poverty.
"We will form an 'axis of good,' good for the people, good for the
future,"  Chavez said at the time.