Lula was scheduled to see French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on a brief stopover from Brazil.

The focus of their talks will be to "announce common points for Copenhagen," presidential foreign affairs advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia said, referring to next month's UN climate change talks in the Danish capital.

"We're worried Copenhagen will be a fiasco," Garcia told AFP.

"There are risks because the biggest country (the United States) won't be arriving with an ambitious program."

France and Brazil have said they will align their goals to present a united face at the summit, aimed at drawing up a successor to the Kyoto Protocol after its provisions expire in 2012.

Lula is also trying to arrange a meeting later this month of presidents from countries in northern South America that all include the vast Amazon rain forest to draft a joint proposal against deforestation.

France should assume its "South American side" to be responsible for its territory of French Guiana, Lula said. The other countries invited to take part are: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

Garcia said it was "probable" Lula and Sarkozy would also discuss Brazil's tender to buy 36 modern fighter jets to boost its air force's capabilities of patrolling the Amazon and offshore oil fields.

France's Rafale aircraft, made by Dassault, is seen as the frontrunner, especially after Sarkozy and Lula said two months ago that Brazil was already negotiating to buy it in preference over the rival Gripen NG by Sweden's Saab and the F/A-18 Super Hornet by US aerospace company Boeing.

After his hours-long visit to France, Lula will head to Rome to attend a UN Food and Agriculture meeting on Monday.

He will insist that wealthy countries "renounce farm subsidies that are distorting trade by hurting poorer countries," the presidential advisor said.

More than 60 heads of state and government are to examine the plight of the one billion people suffering from hunger.

Just before the FAO summit, Lula will attend a meeting of African presidents on Sunday looking at transferring farm knowhow from northeastern Brazil to the African savanna.

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