Brazilian minister replies to Castro, defends ethanol policy (Extra)

Mar 29, 2007, 16:43 GMT

Brasilia - Brazil has become 'a Mecca' for developed and developing countries seeking technology for the use of ethanol as a fuel alternative to oil derivatives, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Thursday.

His remarks came in response to comments made by Cuban President Fidel Castro in an article published by Cuban state daily Granma on Thursday.

'The sinister idea of converting food into fuel has definitely been established as an economic lineament in US foreign policy,' the Cuban leader said, arguing that US President George W Bush's support for using crops to produce ethanol for automobiles in rich nations could deplete food stocks in developing countries.

Amorim defended the position of the leftist government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

'Brazil is today looked at as almost an object of pilgrimage, or a Mecca - to use two different religious examples - by all developed or developing countries, who come to seek in ethanol and (other) biofuels a way out of energy problems, not to remain totally dependent on oil. Everyone knows that oil is going to run out,' the minister said.

Amorim stressed that he 'respects' the Cuban leader and that he does not think his criticisms were aimed at Brazil, which produces ethanol from sugar cane, while the United States uses less energy- efficient corn.

'I think everyone is free to express their opinion. But I do not think that was meant against the Brazilian government or Brazil. Our opinion on ethanol is that ethanol's success has been proved in practice,' he said.

In Castro's article under the headline 'More than 3 billion people in the world condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst,' the Cuban leader warned that plans to convert products like corn, sugar cane or soy beans into ethanol for use as fuel could cause serious ecological damage and adversely affect the third world population.

'I think that reducing and recycling all the electricity and combustible consuming motors is an elemental and urgent necessity for all humanity. The tragedy does not consist in reducing the costs of energy, but in the idea of converting food into combustibles,' Castro said.