Draft law reduces Amazon reserve area

The president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has pledged to veto a bill that would reduce the legally protected area of the Amazon rainforest.

The bill, which is expected to be debated in Congress this week, would reduce the protected area of the Amazon forest from the present eighty percent of the total to fifty percent.

Environmentalists say that, if approved, the law would seriously accelerate the destruction of the rainforest.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service