MAPUTO, Nov 6 (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday pledged immediate support to Mozambique to combat AIDS, which has reached epidemic levels in the southeast African country.
"I want to assure Mozambique that we will face the struggle together," Lula said after visiting an HIV/AIDS treatment clinic in Maputo with his Mozambican counterpart Joaquim Chissano.
Lula said his country would immediately set about raising funds to build a factory to produce generic HIV/AIDS drugs in Mozambique, where 14 percent of an estimated population of 16 million are HIV positive.
The epidemic is the country's second top public health concern after malaria.
"Building an AIDS drugs factory in Mozambique is an urgent issue," Lula said before donating drugs for immediate use by 100 AIDS patients at the clinic.
Lula is on the third leg of a five-nation tour of Africa partly aimed at rallying support for his campaign against wealthy nations' farm subsidies, which he says are taking away export markets from the developing world.
On Wednesday Chissano said Mozambique supported Lula's campaign.
"We are sure that the role of Brazil will be crucial in our efforts against ... farm subsidies and the struggle to obtain access for our products to the markets of the developed world," he said.
On Thursday Lula urged Brazilian business representatives accompanying him to invest in Mozambique "in order to contribute to this country's development."
Representatives from at least one Brazilian company, Comhanhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), have unveiled investment plans during the two-day visit.
CVRD wants to develop the coal mines at Moatize, in Mozambique's central province of Tete.
The firm also expressed an interest in investing in hydro-electric power and other mining projects.
Mozambique has many rivers with the potential to generate electricity while its 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) Indian Ocean coastline is rich in mineral deposits.
Late Wednesday Lula said that Brazil was indebted to Africa because it had enslaved millions of Africans over several centuries until the late 19th century, and took them across the ocean to Brazil.
"The Brazilian society was built through the work, sweat and blood of Africans," Lula said at a banquet offered by Chissano.
According to a copy of a speech circulated among the press on Thursday, Lula said Brazil wants to repay the "debt to Africa" by establishing a new policy of cooperation with the continent and contribute to its development.
Today, more than 76 million of Brazil's population of some 180 million are of African descent.
Lula was Thursday scheduled to leave Mozambique for Namibia, on Africa's southwestern Atlantic coast, before travelling to South Africa.
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