Amazon countries call for aid for forests

MANAUS, Brazil, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Nine South American countries that share the Amazon basin said Saturday rich nations must provide aid to help poorer ones preserve the rain forest.

The meeting in Manaus was hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the BBC reported. Delegates were present from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Surinam, with one European leader, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for French Guiana.

A statement of broad principles from the group is to be presented to the international climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month.

"The poor need to be supported without any country giving up its sovereignty," Lula said. "Let no gringo ask us to let an Amazonian starve to death under a tree "

At the meeting of Commonwealth of Nations countries in Trinidad and Tobago, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed a fund to provide incentives for poor countries to stop cutting tropical forests.