Brazil President Lula gathers team
( 2002-10-30 11:18 ) (7 )

Calling it a "singular moment," Brazil's president-elect began to assemble his team Tuesday for the transition of power to Brazil's first elected leftist government.

But Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the landslide winner of Sunday's election runoff, gave no clues about who will serve in his government. He said, however, the transition team would not include future Cabinet ministers.

"We did that to separate the transition process from the assembling of the government," Silva said. "That will be done later, by me."

Silva said the transition team would be headed by Antonio Palocci, his former campaign manager, who has close ties to financial markets.

Silva, a poor farmer's son who rose to command a labor union, garnered 61 percent of the vote on Sunday, while government candidate Jose Serra got 39 percent.

Brazil's economy was the main issue in the election. Silva capitalized on dissatisfaction with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's free-market reforms, which curbed runaway inflation but left the economy stagnant and millions of Brazilians in poverty or jobless.

Silva, 57, known by his nickname "Lula," takes office Jan. 1. He praised Cardoso for his offer to "put the government practically at our disposal," a contrast to previous changeovers of regime.

Silva recalled that the last leftist president, Joao Goulart, took office when Janio Quadros resigned in 1961. Goulart was deposed two years later by a military coup. In the past half century, only once has a democratically elected leader handed over power peacefully to his successor.

"This is a singular moment in Latin American history," Silva said. "The lesson will endure forever."

Silva's main concern is to have funds available for his "Zero Hunger" program, aide Jose Graziano Silva said. The president-elect said stamping out hunger was the top priority for his government next year, at an estimated cost of around $1.6 billion (6 billion reals) a year.

About 10 million of Brazil's 175 million people live in absolute misery, Graziano Silva said. He added that the government would not simply hand out food; rather, it would invest funds to boost farm production.