Mr Bush is keen to establish an America's free trade area as soon as possible President Bush has met with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to discuss a planned region-wide free trade agreement.
Brazil is by far the largest South American economy.
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.