古巴总统罗瑟芙访美

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has stressed the growing importance of relations with the US after meeting President Obama at the White House.

巴西总统迪尔玛·罗瑟芙在白宫会见美国总统奥巴马时强调加强双方关系的重要性。

Both leaders said US-Brazil co-operation could improve
Ms Rousseff said there was potential to deepen co-operation, particularly in Brazil's booming oil and gas industry.

She expressed concern about expansionist monetary policies in developed countries, saying they were impairing growth in emerging economies.

President Obama said US-Brazil relations "had never been stronger".

He hailed the "extraordinary progress" Brazil had made under President Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, saying it had become "a leading voice in the world".

President Rousseff is making her first official visit to the US.

The main aim of her trip is to boost ties between the two biggest economies in the Americas.

Ms Rousseff told reporters that she welcomed the "increasing close" trade links and growing mutual investment between Brazil and the US.

She said co-operation could go much further, both in terms of trade and in "science, technology and investment".

But she expressed concern about the international economic crisis, and in particular the depreciation（折旧，贬值） in the value of currencies such as the US dollar.

She said this was damaging economic growth in developing countries and amounted to a form of "exchange-rate protectionism".

President Obama also said the relationship could be improved "so that not only Brazil and the US, but the world can benefit from our deeper co-operation".