Brazil president has last word on fighter jets: FM

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have the final say on who will sell billions of dollars in fighter jets to Brazil to modernize its air force, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Friday.

"President Lula has the last word; of course, he will take into account the position of the National Defense Committee," Amorim told international journalists in Rio.

"Let me reiterate: there was an evaluation of various proposals, and Brazil made the decision to start negotiations with France. Its proposal was the most favorable," he added.

Rival bidders trying to sell fighter jets to Brazil have made a final push for the multi-billion-dollar contract, which had looked all but sewn up by France's Dassault.

Sweden's Saab and the United States, backing defense contractor Boeing in the race, both emphasized they would transfer important technology to meet Brazil's requirement that it not only acquire new jets but also the knowhow to build them.

But a Brazilian official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote to Lula promising "unrestricted access to technology" in the Dassault offer and a competitive price.

That letter was "instrumental" in Lula's announcement on Monday that he was opening negotiations to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault, the official said. A French official said the deal was worth up to seven billion dollars.

Lula's announcement prompted the US government, through a statement on its embassy website in Brazil, to say it had approved the transfer to Brazil of "all necessary technology" related to its F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft.

Saab, in its own statement on Thursday, underlined that it, too, would give "key technology" if Brazil chose its Gripen NG fighter.

But the Brazilian official said those offers were "unlikely to change the situation because it's not clear what is 'necessary technology' when another competitor guarantees 'unrestricted technology.'"