President Lula: Olympics would ‘transform’ Brazil
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to choose Rio de Janeiro as the 2016 host city, rather than giving the Games to a "rich" country.
The South American leader said the Olympics would be a chance to transform the country and would incentivise investment in Brazil.
Mr Lula da Silva, speaking ahead of presentations to the IOC this week, said: "The Olympic Games cannot be kept by the rich countries."
He urged the committee to share the hosting of the Games across all continents.
Brazil is competing against the US, Spain and Japan, who have put forward Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo as their representative cities to host the Olympics.
All four will put forward their cases to IOC members in Lausanne this week and the vote will take place in October in Copenhagen.
Football’s international governing body FIFA recently announced the 12 cities that will stage world cup games when the competition returns to Brazil in 2014.
