Brazil to host Amazon summit on climate change: Lula

SAO PAULO, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Monday in Sao Paulo that leaders from Amazon countries would attend a summit in Manaus on Nov. 26 to form a common position at the upcoming UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

At a press conference at the Sao Paulo Industries Federation headquarters, Lula said the Copenhagen meeting would be "a golden opportunity" to discuss the Amazon's preservation among other subjects involving climate change.

In Copenhagen, leaders are expected to elaborate a new agreement on greenhouse gas emission reduction to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The Brazilian government has announced earlier that, at the Copenhagen meeting, it would present a proposal to reduce deforestation in 80 percent of the Amazon Rain Forests by 2020, as part of global efforts to fight climate change.