Brazil urges Africa to join "biofuel revolution"

By Christian Tsoumou

BRAZZAVILLE (Reuters) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called on Africa to join the "biofuel revolution," saying it would help strengthen the world's poorest economies and fight global warming.

Speaking during an African tour, Lula said Brazil's experience with biofuels showed the environmental and economic benefits of mass producing ethanol and bio-diesel.

"Brazil invites Burkina Faso and all of Africa to join the biofuel revolution," Lula said in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou late on Monday, before flying to Congo Republic.

He will also visit South Africa and Angola.

"By planting crops in Africa, Latin America and Asia to produce ethanol and biodiesel on a large scale, we will be able to democratize access to sustainable energy and at the same time fight the impact of global warming which hits the world's poorest countries disproportionately hard," he said.

Three quarters of new cars run on a mix of biofuel and gasoline in Brazil and the country's state oil company, Petrobras, expects ethanol sales in Latin America's largest country to beat gasoline consumption by around 2020.

Brazil also exports ethanol to the United States, the Caribbean and the European Union.

Africa produces a range of crops that could be used to make biofuel, including sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, sorghum and cassava -- all of which can be used to make ethanol -- and peanuts, whose oil can be used to power diesel engines.