Brazil's Lula to stall Mexico in Mercosur - official

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will try to boost Brazilian energy exports when he visits Mexico next week but he will ignore calls for Mexican membership in the Mercosur trade bloc, a senior diplomat said on Wednesday.

The question of Mexican membership in Mercosur comes after Argentine President Nestor Kirchner said on Monday that Mercosur nations Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay wanted Mexico as a member.

But Lula will not discuss the issue with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, said Gonzalo Mourao, a key official in Brazil's foreign ministry.

"The issue is not on the table for now," Mourao told a news conference, though he did not rule out the possibility of Mexican membership in the future.

Since Lula came to power in January 2003, Brazil has focused its regional integration efforts on South America rather than Latin America as a whole.

"Mexico decided to become part of North America," a foreign ministry official said last week.

Calderon and Lula will sign an energy accord to pave the way for Brazilian investment and technology in a nascent Mexican ethanol industry.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of ethanol, which it derives from sugar cane.

As president-elect, Calderon said during a visit to Brazil in October he was also interested in the deep-sea drilling technology of state-run oil giant Petrobras.

Lula's trip, which also includes stopovers in Honduras, Nicaragua, Jamaica and Panama, begins on Sunday.

Several Brazilian construction firms have said previously they were interested in the planned expansion of the Panama Canal.

- Reuters