Delubio Soares, former treasurer of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT), admitted on Thursday that his party paid 10 million reales (about 4.25 million US dollars) to the Liberal Party (PL) in return for an alliance in general elections in 2002.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from the PT, and Vice President Jose Alencar, from the PL, won the second round of the elections with 53 million votes in 2002.

The two parties reached an agreement that 25 percent of the money collected for the presidential campaign would be for the vice presidency, Soares testified before a parliamentary commission.

"This would amount to about 10 million reales," he added.

Soares, who stepped down for suspected involvement in the bribes-for-votes scandal, insisted that the PT never bribed anybody and that the payments were made to cover campaign debts.

The Brazilian ruling PT has also seen four other top officials shot down in the snowballing corruption scandal. And Costa Neto, the PL president, also resigned two weeks ago after being accused of benefiting from the plan.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva is trying to revamp the party's image before the elections slated for October 2006.

Source: Xinhua