COTONOU, Feb 11: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Benin counterpart Mathieu Kerekou have called for the cancellation of all debt owed by poor nations to the industrialised world.

The two leaders, in a joint statement after talks here Friday, also called on developed nations to phase out subsidies on their agricultural products, seen as hurting farmers in poorer countries.

Lula and Kerekou called on developed nations to take measures to cancel all debt for all ‘ppor’ countries, in their post-talks statement.

Lula arrived here late Thursday from Algiers and left Cotonou for Botswana late Friday. He will finish his regional tour in South Africa.

During two sets of talks, Kerekou and Lula put the accent on the need to promote North-South cooperation, the joint statement said.

The heads of state also “invited industrialised nations to put into action their pledges to remove in 2006 the subsidies on exports of cotton and to dismantle, by 2013, all forms of subsidies on farm products and to open up their markets to agricultural produce from developing countries”.

Benin and Brazil also reaffirmed “the necessity to reform the UN, in order to make it more democratic and more representative of the political configuration and the prevailing world economy”.

Kerekou said he supported Brazil gaining a seat on the UN Security Council.

The two countries also signed cooperation deal on ports, cotton processing and the fight against malaria and announced that they would exchange diplomatic missions in Benin and Brasilia later this year.—AFP