Brazil mulling French war jet buy as Sarkozy visits

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Brazil late Sunday for a two-day state visit as Latin America's biggest nation mulled a four-billion-dollar purchase of French fighter jets.

Sarkozy is to be Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's guest of honor at the country's Independence Day parade in Brasilia on Monday - a symbolic but significant sign of the close military relations being forged between their two countries.

Lula is to announce in the next few weeks the winner of a fiercely contested tender to supply Brazil with 36 modern war jets that will be the spearpoint of the country's air force for the next three decades.

Read more