Speaking on Saturday at a press conference with Brazilian media, Mohsen Shaterzadeh said the number of agreements to be signed during President Ahmadinejad's visit to Brazil is more than those signed in the past 50 years by the two countries.

President Ahmadinejad is scheduled to visit Brazil on November 23. This is the first visit by an Iranian head of state to the country in the past 50 years.

Stating that this is the third meeting of Ahmadinejad with his Brazilian counterpart in the past three years, he said that the first took place in Ecuador three years ago and the second in New York in September.

He said “While the volume of Brazil's commercial exchanges with the Middle East countries declined by 28 percent in the first six months of the year, its exchanges with Iran grew by 38 percent during the same period.”

Asked about the date of the Brazilian president’s visit to Iran, he said that it is anticipated that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will travel to Iran during the first six months of 2010.

He added that the Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry and Trade's visit to Iran is a prelude to the president’s travel to Tehran.