Silva was to leave Rio de Janeiro Sunday night and arrive the following morning in the island state of Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa for a summit of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, or CPLP, Brazil's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Silva was to hold talks with the heads of state of Sao Tome and Principe, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and East Timor on Monday and Tuesday to discuss information technology and its contribution to good governance and transparency, the statement said.
Silva will announce a credit line of US$650,000 for education and health projects in Sao Tome, one of Africa's poorest countries.
Sao Tome is one several countries receiving AIDS drugs from Brazil.
The country, a former Portuguese colony of 140,000 inhabitants, in July 2003 suffered a military coup that briefly ousted its president.
During the CPLP talks, Silva also hopes to start negotiating a preferential trade agreement between the CPLP countries and the Mercosur trade block, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, Brazil's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Currently, Brazil's trade with Sao Tome and the two other African countries Silva will visit - Gabon and Cape Verde - is made up mostly of Brazilian exports of agricultural products and clothing worth about US$10 million annually.
Silva is to visit Gabon's capital Libreville on Tuesday, where he will donate half a million pills of the anti-retroviral drug Indiravir produced by Brazil's government. The drugs are sufficient to provide AIDS treatment for 500 people for five months, Brazil said.
Late Wednesday, Silva will travel to the island nation of Cape Verde, where he will inaugurate an information technology center.
It is Silva's third visit to Africa since he took office in January 2003 - Sapa-AP
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