Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, has launched an international fund to finance conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon.

The fund will support forest conservation, scientific research and sustainable development projects such as forestry management or developing drugs from plants.

"We are conscious of what the Amazon represents for the world," Lula said during an inauguration ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

The government hopes to raise $1bn within one year and as much as $21bn by 2021, according to Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES), which is to manage the fund.

Norway will make the first donation - $100m - in September, said Eduardo Bandeira de Mello, head of Environment and Social Responsibilities at BNDES.

Illegal logging

Brazil has urged wealthy nations to help pay for the conservation of the Amazon.

Not chopping down trees had a cost, especially to millions of people living in the Amazon, Lula told Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, when she visited in May.

Illegal loggers usually pave the way for farmers and cattle ranchers to move deeper into the forest in search of cheaper land.

However, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, the Brazilian minister for strategic affairs, said the country would not accept foreign states interfering in its Amazon policy.

"The fund is a vehicle by which foreign governments can help support our initiatives without exerting any influence over our national policy," Unger said.

"We are not going to trade sovereignty for money."