Brazil, facing tension with Bolivia over the latter's land reform, said Thursday it would take no action if the reform leads to the confiscation of soybean farms owned by Brazilian citizens.

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the government could do nothing should Bolivia confiscate the farms in its northern regions of Pando and Beni.

Amorim made the remarks before leaving for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, to discuss issues concerning South American Common Market.

"That is their land. It is a question of sovereignty. What we can (do) is ask them to treat respectfully Brazilians who own productive properties in Bolivia," he said.

The response came after Bolivia's House of Representatives on Monday approved a bill in favor of cultivating organic agricultural products to replace crops grown in agribusiness.
 
The bill was part of an agrarian reform plan that President Evo Morales had defended in his electoral campaign in 2005.

Morales' reform plans have caused the concern of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry because they have an impact on Brazilians who produce soybeans in Bolivia, close to the border between the two countries, and whose farms represent about 60 percent of Bolivia's soybean exports.

This could be the second impasse between Brazil and Bolivia since Morales was elected as the first indigenous leader in January. In May, his government nationalized the country's oil and gas reserves. That policy affected Brazil's state-owned company Petrobras, which ran refineries and exploitation units in Bolivia as well as imported natural gas from the neighboring country.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2006)