Mr Bush had said on Thursday that he wanted to finish negotiations on the agreement as soon as possible and would work to convince the South American nations of the wisdom of this course. It has warily participated in years of negotiations for the free trade pact, but is the country with the least to gain from rushing into a deal on US terms.
Brazil trades more with Europe than the United States.
Its main potential exports to the US are agricultural goods, which cannot compete with the heavy subsidies given to US agriculture. Moreover, it has a growing industrial sector producing everything from machinery to cars, which would suffer badly if the Brazilian market were opened up. Set to dominate summit While the United States and other nations hope the agreement can be reached by 2003, Brazil wants to stick to the original target date of 2005. The free trade agreement is expected to dominate next month's Summit of the Americas in Quebec, which will be attended by all of the region's leaders, except Cuba's Fidel Castro. Mr Cardoso said he was confident that those attending would reach agreement over the pace of commercial integration.