Brazil's Petrobras eyes Angola's deep water oil

* Brazil seeks to promote trade with Africa

LUANDA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-owned Petrobras (PETR4.SA) is interested in developing Angola's ultra-deepwater oil exploration, known as pre-salt, Brazil's Trade and Development Minister Miguel Jorge said on Tuesday.

Angola shares a similar underwater rock formation as Brazil, which in 2007 made a pre-salt discovery of some 8 billion barrels of crude in its Tupi field.

"A director of Petrobras had a meeting with Angola's economy minister and told him Petrobras, which is present here, has a big interest in drilling and working in an area we call pre-salt -- deep and ultra deep waters," said Jorge.

He was speaking to journalists at the start of a three-nation tour to Angola, South Africa and Mozambique aimed at promoting trade between Africa and Brazil.

Norwegian oil and gas company StatoilHydro (STL.OL) said in in July it was also looking at pre-salt exploration in Angola, which rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer.

Jorge said Brazil, a major biofuels producer, was also working with Angola and other African nations to help them produce sugar and ethanol as a way of bolstering their once-prosperous farming sectors.

"It's an idea and a dream of President Lula that agriculture becomes an irreversible process in Africa and we think that biofuels is an important step in that direction," Jorge said.