Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called a meeting of top ministers to hammer out a plan to stop an alarming rise in deforestation of the Amazon, a presidential aide said.
The ministers in charge of the environment, agriculture, justice, defence, and science, along with the country's police chief were to gather at Lula's request in Brasilia to make the matter an urgent priority.
Government figures showed the stripping of trees from the vast Amazon region - sometimes called the "lungs of the world" for its role in producing oxygen - had risen sharply in the last five months of 2007.
It is estimated 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 square miles) have been devastated, with more than half of that occurring in November and December.
The total area deforestated is roughly equivalent to the area of Madrid. Such destruction could reverse the gains Brazil has made in the past three years to slow deforestation of the Amazon. The worst historic devastation was between August 2003 and July 2004, when 27,429 square kilometres fell to chainsaws and burning.
After that, the government tackled the problem vigorously and managed to reduce the amount of stripping to 11,224 square kilometres between August 2006 and July 2007.
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