Brazil pays more for plane than sanitation

BRASILIA, Brazil, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Brazil spent more than twice as much on a new plane for the president in 2004 than it did on public sanitation, Folha de Sao Paulo reported Thursday.

The newspaper said the government spent $46.7 million on a new plane for the president and during the same period spent just under $20 million on urban sanitation projects.

Earlier this week, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to use more of the 2005 budget for social spending than he did during his first two years in office.

Lula campaigned on a pledge to improve Brazil's social programs but took a more economically conservative approach once he entered office, drastically reducing the scale of his proposed social plan.