Brazil needs to boost military spending: minister

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil must increase military spending to meet new challenges including the defense of a huge offshore oil discovery and Amazon resources, the minister for strategic affairs said on Wednesday.

The government is close to finishing a plan that would shift military priorities away from its southern borders and toward its long Atlantic coast, its air space and a porous border in the Amazon region.

The strategic defense plan will guide the purchase of military equipment in coming years.

"Brazil currently spends 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. That amount will have to rise," Minister Roberto Mangabeira Unger told reporters after an environment seminar in Brasilia.

The government could increase military spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, Valor newspaper reported on Monday.

The defense plan would be ready for release in a few weeks, said Unger, who co-wrote it with Defense Minister Nelson Jobim.

Brazil is negotiating a strategic defense alliance with France that would include the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine in Brazil. It also seeks closer military ties with Russia.

Brazil has already decided to build 50 Super Cougar helicopters under an agreement with Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS.

The Brazilian air force launched a tender in June to buy at least 36 fighter jets to replace its aging fleet. Unger has said the government seeks a partnership with a foreign ally to develop the planes in Brazil.

Last year state-run oil company Petrobras announced the world's second-largest oil discovery in two decades under a thick layer of salt beneath the ocean floor.

In the Amazon, the government is concerned over possible incursions by Colombian guerrilla, drug traffickers and others.

(Reporting by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Todd Benson and Xavier Briand)