BRAZIL: Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva apologised in a nationwide address yesterday for a bribery scandal threatening his government, but he denied knowledge of the pay-offs.
"The government and the [ ruling] Workers' Party have to ask for forgiveness from the Brazilian people," he said in the speech.
Allegations that President Lula's ruling party used undeclared financing to pay campaign costs and bribe legislators have brought on Brazil's worst political crisis in a decade.
Mr Lula called for the reform of campaign finance rules which he has blamed for luring off-the-books money into the political system. "I'm conscious of the gravity of the political crisis. It hurts the entire [ political] party system," he said. "It is the duty of the government to stop the crisis from contaminating the economy."