Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidency with the election slogan "Love and Peace". But after 18 months in office his pacificist leanings are being tested by the growing menace of drug trafficking.

An influx of cocaine and other narcotics is blamed for many of the 370,000 deaths by violence in Brazil during the 1990s. Drugs have financed arms purchases and intensified turf wars between gangs in Rio de Janeiro and other cities.

Now, amid rising public anger at the level of urban violence, Mr Lula da Silva is to authorise Brazil's air force to shoot down any unidentified aircraft suspected of smuggling narcotics.

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Brazil will start shooting down aircraft used by drug traffickers under a government policy to be implemented by the end of the month.

Peru and Colombia abandoned the controversial practice after the Peruvian air force, with the help of US intelligence in 2001, accidentally shot down an aircraft carrying American missionaries.

Experts say that partly as a result of that suspension, traffickers have been able to increase their flights and drug supplies from Colombia, heightening pressure on regional governments to take tougher action.

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