Brazil president plans food before jet
Brazil’s new president has proposed delaying a £435m (€671m) military jet fighter contract in order to fund new anti-hunger programmes.
Defence minister Jose Viegas said the contract to modernise the air force will be delayed for a year.
A spokesman for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the money might be better spent to feed millions of hungry Brazilians.
In his inaugural address, Silva said his top priority is eliminating hunger among the country’s estimated 54 million poor, 24 million of whom live on less than 65p a day.
He said Brazil, a fertile country the size of the continental United States with a robust agricultural industry, should be able to feed its citizens.
Using the money for the hunger programme could anger Brazil’s military just as Silva is beginning his presidency.
The British-Swedish consortium of BAE Systems and Saab the French-Brazilian consortium of Dassault Aviation and Embraer Lockheed Martin and the Russian-Brazilian consortium of Sukhoi and Avibras Aeroespacial are all bidding for the fighter jet contract.
Despite budget pressures, Silva announced plans before his inauguration to revive a nuclear submarine project to patrol Brazil’s 5,000-mile Atlantic coastline.
