Brazilian president outlines priorities for second term

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday outlined boosting economic development, improving education and reducing poverty as his priorities in his second term.

In a speech broadcast nationwide, Lula said "the name of my second mandate will be development -- development with income distribution and quality education."

The Brazilian president also pledged to hold accountable anyone involved in corruption in his government.

"All denunciations of corruption will be fully investigated and the guilty will be punished," he said.

Lula said he would work with Congress to approve projects of "interest to the nation," including measures to increase educational spending and reduce taxes for small businessmen.

Brazil's electoral court announced on Sunday that Lula won a second term in the presidential runoff with Geraldo Alckmin of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, netting 61 percent of the vote.

Lula, 61, failed to clinch an outright victory over Alckmin in the Oct. 1 presidential election, during which the incumbent president got 48.6 percent of the votes against Alckmin's 41.6 percent.

Source: Xinhua