\'God is Brazilian\'

November 21 2007 at 02:55AM

Brasilia - God is Brazilian, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday in response to his government\'s announcement earlier this month that massive new oil reserves had been discovered offshore.

This discovery proves that God is Brazilian, he said during a speech at his presidential palace in the capital Brasilia.

His theological assertion is not original: Brazilians have long claimed that God shares their nationality on the basis of the natural resources at their disposal.

The British magazine The Economist also already made reference to that saying in its take on the oil find in an article last week titled God may indeed be Brazilian after all.

Brazil\'s government and the state-run oil company Petrobras announced two weeks ago that exploration of its Tupi offshore field showed it had enough to increase national oil reserves by 50 percent.

A new discovery nearby still being explored also appeared to contain enough petroleum to propel Brazil among the top 10 oil producers in the world, they said. - Sapa-AFP

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