Brazil Leader Defends Iranian’s Visit

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Monday that the world needed to engage, not isolate, Iran, and he defended Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, so long as there was “clear respect for international agreements.”

Mr. da Silva made his comments as he hosted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran in the first visit to Brazil by an Iranian leader since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visited in 1965.

Saying that the two nations were renewing “century-long ties,” Mr. da Silva said he would visit Iran next spring as part of a new push by Brazil to try to help bring peace to the region.

Mr. da Silva decided to invite Mr. Ahmadinejad despite a series of protests in Brazil against the Iranian president and criticism of the visit from members of the United States Congress and former Brazilian diplomats. They were concerned that such a gesture would legitimize the Iranian government at a time when the United States and European powers were seeking to pressure Iran to limit its development of nuclear technology for civilian use.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said Monday that both Brazil and Iran were “seeking a world free from weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons.”

But he did not say that he would accept a proposed accord under which Iran would export most of its enriched uranium for additional processing into fuel for a nuclear reactor. He said instead that Iran would seek to improve its uranium-enrichment technology if it was unable to buy enriched uranium abroad.

“If the people ask us to produce it ourselves, we will do it,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said. “And the opportunity we create for the other side will be lost.”

Mr. da Silva said that Iran had “the right to develop the enrichment of uranium for the production of energy for peaceful uses just as much as Brazil does.” Brazil has been developing nuclear technology for use in energy production.

The two leaders met privately for three hours before announcing a series of bilateral accords on energy, agriculture and science and technology. They also agreed to expedite the granting of diplomatic visas between their countries for the next three years.

Mr. da Silva said Iran had become one of Brazil’s biggest trading partners in the Middle East, with trade doubling between 2003 and 2007 to nearly $2 billion, much of that sales of Brazilian food to Iran.

Mr. Ahmadinejad was the third leader from the Middle East to visit Brazil this month, following Shimon Peres of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr. da Silva said he would visit the Middle East next year, with trips to Iran, Israel and Jordan.

Brazil’s engagement in the Middle East, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, could “help in the promotion of peace and stability.”

He also said he supported Mr. da Silva’s effort to have Brazil become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr. da Silva said that Iran was critical to resolving the conflicts in the region. “You don’t move forward by leaving Iran isolated,” he said on his national radio program. “If Iran is an important actor in this discord, then it is important that someone sits with Iran, talks with Iran and tries to establish a balancing point, so that society returns to a certain normality in the Middle East.”