Brasilia and Venezuela signed Thursday in Brasilia an agreement on jointly building an oil refinery with a total investment of 2.5 billion US dollars.

Chief executives of Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela and Brazil's government oil company Petrobras signed the agreement with the presence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Brasilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Financing of the complex will be equally split between the two companies and the refinery will be ready to operate in 44 months.

The refinery, to be built in the northeastern Brasilian state of Pernambuco, is to process up to 200,000 barrels of heavy oil daily.

The signing of the agreement was "an important step" toward the integration of South American countries, said Lula.

Chavez, who is here attending the first summit of the South American Community of Nations (CSN), said the agreement demonstrated Venezuela and Brasilia are taking concrete actions to realize the integration of the South American continent.

Foreign ministers of the CSN met here on Thursday to make last preparations for the summit, which is to kick off on Friday.

The CSN, which was built in December 2004, consists of 12 countries, including five Andean Community countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela and four Common Market of the South nations of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, as well as Chile, Surinam and Guyana.

Source: Xinhua