There have been calls in Brazil for the representative of the International Monetary Fund to be expelled, after he criticised a multi-million dollar plan to fight poverty.

Under the plan, which enjoys broad political support, more than two-billion dollars of the annual budget would go towards helping Brazil's twenty-four million most impoverished people.

But the IMF official, Lorenzo Perez, told an American news agency Dow Jones that the anti-poverty measure could endanger Brazil's accords with the Fund.

The Brazilian government reacted by saying the IMF had no right to comment on budgetary matters, while the left-wing Workers Party the PT accused Mr Perez of interfering in Brazil's internal affairs and said he should be thrown out of the country.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service