Brazilian president meets with Bill Clinton

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff met here on Monday with former U.S. President Bill Clinton during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Latin America Meeting to discuss alternative energy sources, a minister said. The two leaders talked about the possibility of creating a fund to finance alternative energy projects for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, said Brazil's Development, Industry and Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel, who is here attending the three-day meeting which started on Sunday. "Clinton talked about programs he supports in the Caribbean and Rousseff expressed interest in the possibility of creating a fund to finance this kind of project," said the minister. During her speech earlier Monday, Rousseff said Brazil continues to be a land of social inclusion and of business opportunities. She highlighted the country's domestic market, saying it is the reason Brazil managed to go through the international financial crisis with less difficulty. The Brazilian President reaffirmed that in the past 10 years - namely during her administration and in the government of her predecessor and political mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - millions of jobs were created and the purchase power of the minimum wage increased significantly. CGI was established in 2005 by Clinton, as an initiative to convene global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. Each year, CGI holds a meeting which draws heads of state, Nobel Prize winners and leading CEOs to discuss the world's most important issues.