PORTO VELHO:
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday he was open to discussing G7
aid for fighting fires in the Amazon if his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron
"withdraws insults" made against him. Bolsonaro's remarks come amid
an escalating war of words with Macron over the worst fires in years that have
sparked a global outcry and threatened to torpedo a huge trade deal between the
European Union and South American countries.

Hours earlier, a
top Brazilian official had rejected the G7 countries' offer of $20 million to
combat the fires devastating the forest in Brazil and Bolivia, saying Macron
should take care of "his home and his colonies." "Mr Macron must
withdraw the insults he made against me," Bolsonaro told reporters in the
capital Brasilia. "To talk or accept anything from France, with the best
possible intentions, he has to withdraw these words, and from there we can
talk."

Macron and
Bolsonaro have repeatedly locked horns in the past week, with the French leader
accusing Bolsonaro of lying to him about his commitments on climate change and
vowing to block the EU-Mercosur trade deal involving Brazil that took decades
to negotiate. On Monday, Macron condemned "extraordinarily rude"
comments made about his wife Brigitte by Bolsonaro a day earlier. Bolsonaro has
hit back, accusing Macron of treating Brazil like "a colony or no-man's
land."

The latest
official figures show 1,659 new fires were started in Brazil between Sunday and
Monday, taking the total this year to 82,285 - the highest since at least 2013
- even as military aircraft and troops help battle the blazes. More than half
of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin. Bolsonaro - a climate-change
skeptic - has faced criticism at home over his delayed response to the fires
and thousands have protested in Brazil in recent days to denounce the
destruction.

Bestselling
Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho took to the internet to apologize - in French -
for Bolsonaro's behavior. "This is a rather sad video to ask forgiveness
of my French friends for the crisis - I would even say the hysteria of
Bolsonaro regarding France, the French president, the French president's
wife," he said in a message posted on Twitter. "As Amazonia burns,
they have no argument except to insult, deny, say anything to avoid taking
responsibility," he added.

'Under control'

In the hard-hit
northwestern state of Rondonia, thick smoke has choked the capital Porto Velho
in recent days as fires blacken swaths of the rainforest. Defense Minister
Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday claimed that the fires were "under
control." "It has been exaggerated a little that the situation was
out of control - it wasn't," he said. "The situation isn't simple but
it is under control." Nearly 2,500 troops and 15 aircraft, including two
C-130 Hercules, have been deployed, according to the defense ministry, which
has published satellite data it says show a reduction in the number of fires in
the nine states spanning the Amazon.

More than 43,000
troops were available to help put out fires, the government said previously.
Images posted on the presidential office Twitter account Monday showed
firefighters wearing bright orange or yellow clothing using water backpacks to douse
flames. Experts say increased land clearing during the months-long dry season
to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated the recurring problem this
year.

Although about 60
percent of the Amazon is in Brazil, the vast forest also spreads over parts of
eight other countries or territories, including the French overseas territory
of Guiana on the continent's northeast coast. Bolivian President Evo Morales
said Sunday he would accept international help to combat wildfires raging in
his country's southeast. Bolivia suspended election campaigning on Monday to
deal with the voracious fires that have devastated more than 9,500 square
kilometers (3,600 square miles) of forest and grassland.- AFP