Brazil asked the United States on Wednesday to exempt Brazilians from anti-terrorism checks and defended retaliatory fingerprint controls on US citizens that have strained relations between the countries.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim suggested to US Secretary of State Colin Powell that if the United States could exempt "distant" nations from the new security controls, it could exempt a neighbour in the Americas like Brazil.
"Amorim said that if several young and distant nations are exempt from the US measure, all the more reason for nations that are members of the Organisation of American States," Brazil's Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a telephone conversation between the two.
On Monday, the United States began fingerprinting and photographing foreign visitors needing a visa to enter the country.
The program does not apply to citizens of 27, mainly European nations, who do not need a visa for short vacations or business trips.
In retaliation, a Brazilian federal judge ordered the fingerprinting and photographing off all US citizens.
Amorim said on Tuesday that Brazilian controls were being applied to US visitors based on "the principle of reciprocity a basic element of international relations."
The United States has said the order was designed to "punish" Americans rather than to reciprocate the US measure. It has demanded changes in manual ink-pad fingerprinting that has caused delays for US travellers. The US system is fully digital.
"We are doing it for all individuals coming into the United States, whereas in this one case in Brazil a judge singled out Americans," Powell told reporters before his talk with Amorim. "What we're asking is not terribly unreasonable."
"This is just an excuse to apply tougher immigration controls," a high-ranking Brazilian government minister, who asked not to be identified, said of the US program.
But Brazil's centre-left government does not want to spoil a good relationship with the United States over an issue on which Washington is unlikely to budge. Nor is Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva eager to be seen backing down on controls that have wide support.
"The two governments will continue to work on these issues," a State Department spokesman said after Powell's conversation with Amorim.
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