The Brazil-U.S. memorandum of understanding on ethanol will have an impact on the whole world, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said on Saturday.

"I think it's a pact that will have a great effect on Brazil, on the United States and all the countries of South America, Latin America, Africa and Asia. I think it's for all the world," Amorim told a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.

"This agreement will influence the energy environment not only of the two countries concerned, but also all the world," he said.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed on Friday, Brazil and the United States forged a strategic alliance to promote the production and consumption of biofuels on global markets and address the issue of the transfer of technology to other countries.

As the world's largest ethanol producers, the two countries account for 70 percent of the fuel's production.

Brasilia and Washington have been seeking to standardize the definition of ethanol so it can be traded on global markets the same way that oil is.

Source: Xinhua