Silva Starts Nordic Tour in Finland HELSINKI, Finland - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opened his visit to northern Europe on Monday with talks on climate change and energy cooperation with government and business leaders in Finland.
Silva met with Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen on the first stop of a Nordic tour to boost trade and promote Brazil's biofuel program.
He also attended a business seminar aimed at boosting trade relations between the countries, and was later scheduled to meet with Finnish lawmakers.
Silva is the first Brazilian head of state to visit Finland, Halonen's office said. He will head to Sweden, Denmark and Norway later in the week.
Halonen and Silva told reporters they spoke about cooperating in a range of areas, from ethanol production to efforts to fight climate change. Halonen also reiterated her country's support for Brazil's efforts to get a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Brazil is the world's leading ethanol exporter and has been touting its sugarcane-based biofuel around the world as a cheap, eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels amid soaring oil prices and global warming concerns.
Brazil is expected to sign biofuel agreements with Sweden and Denmark. Finland, Norway and Sweden already buy the alternative fuel from Brazil.
"Sugarcane is a very profitable raw material. It creates jobs for small farms," Silva was quoted as saying at the business seminar by Finnish news agency STT.
He urged Finnish forestry companies, such as Stora Enso (nyse: SEO - news - people ) Oyj, to start production of biofuel from pulp. The Helsinki-based company's assets in Brazil include a paper mill, an eucalyptus pulp mill and sawmill.
Brazil and Finland signed a memorandum of understanding on an initiative under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.
Under the deal, Finland would achieve some of its required emissions reductions in 2008-2012 through investments in Brazil, Finnish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Anttonen said.
Trade between Brazil and the Nordic nations reached $3.8 billion (2.8 billion euros) in 2006, an 80 percent increase since 2003, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said.
The Brazilian leader also will make a stop in Spain where he will meet with businessmen, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and King Juan Carlos.
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