Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday held talks with visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country offered Cuba millions of US dollars in credit.

 

"The meeting is being held as we speak," which began at 5:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), said Favio Rocha, a Brazilian Foreign Ministry spokesman.

 

Castro, 81, has been recovering from a serious stomach complaint since July 2006, when he temporarily ceded power to Defense Minister Raul Castro.

 

The talks came at the end of Lula's 24-hour visit to Cuba. He also met earlier with Raul Castro at the Palace of the Revolution.

 

This is the Brazilian president's second visit to Cuba since he took office in 2003.

 

During Lula's visit, the two countries signed 10 deals, ranging from oil exploration, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals to agriculture, in efforts to boost bilateral cooperation, said Cuba's Latin American News Agency.

 

They included a memorandum of understanding allowing Brazilian state-owned energy company Petrobras to explore and produce oil and gas in Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

A second memorandum agreed to hold a feasibility study on a possible joint venture to produce and sell lubricants in Cuba.

 

In another deal, Brazil's Financing and Export Guarantee Committee approved loans for Cuban food purchases, the expansion of Cuba's Ernesto Guevara Nickel Plant and the purchase of Cuban fish-farming equipment.

 

The committee also agreed to assess a series of new projects ranging from hotels, road infrastructure and sugar production to pharmaceuticals.

 

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said food credits might be worth as much as 100 million U.S. dollars.

 

The two countries also signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation in healthcare, information systems of subterranean waters, industrial digital information and patents.

 

Lula arrived here on Monday night after attending the inauguration ceremony of Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom in Guatemala City.

 

Lula's Cuban agenda also included a visit to the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center and a meeting with some 500 Brazilian students studying at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba, said the Latin American News Agency.

 

Brazil is Cuba's second-largest commercial partner in Latin America and its eighth-largest in the world, according to the news agency.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2008)