Brazil's Lula signs biofuels deal in Congo

BRAZZAVILLE Oct 17 (Reuters) - Brazil has signed two agreements with Congo Republic to provide the poor central African state with training, technology and financing to produce biofuel from sugar cane and palm oil.

Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso told a news conference on Tuesday with Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that his country's oil production would dwindle within years and it was necessary to look to the future.

Lula, who travelled to South Africa on Wednesday, said Africa had plenty of land to produce biofuel and could provide a solution to the energy deficit of the world's poorest continent.

"We are ready to accompany the continent and we are willing to help those countries which want to follow Brazil's example: today we are self-sufficient in energy," Lula told the news conference.

Brazil's state oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) expects ethanol sales in Latin America's largest country to beat gasoline consumption by around 2020.

Africa produces a range of crops that could be used to make biofuel, including sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, sorghum and cassava -- all of which can be used to make ethanol -- and peanuts, whose oil can be used to power diesel engines.