Thousands rally in support of Brazil's president

Thousands of students, unionists and peasants demonstrated in Brazil's capital on Tuesday in a show of support for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as he struggles to manage a deepening corruption scandal.
The protest, the first of two scheduled for this week, was the first mass rally in Brasilia since the scandal over bribes paid to Congressmen broke out in June.
Demonstrators, many with faces painted in the yellow and green of Brazil's flag, said they wanted Lula to stay in office but urged him to loosen tight economic policies to ease poverty.
"We don't want Lula to fall. If he goes it's a setback for all Brazil's social movements," said Gustavo Petta, president of Brazil's national students union. "We're here to criticise the government's economic policy," he said.
Police estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people took part in the rally. Organisers put the figure at 20,000.
Allegations that Lula's former aides and his Workers' Party siphoned off public funds to buy the support of lawmakers and finance campaigns have provoked Brazil's worst political crisis since protests and an impeachment process forced President Fernando Collor from office in 1992.
So far, Lula has not been directly implicated and centrist parties have eased up on calls for his impeachment. "We don't believe Lula is involved. He's a symbol of the Brazilian worker, of honesty," said Joao Felicio, head of the CUT labour confederation, one of Brazil's main union groups.
Left-wing groups are split over supporting Lula, who came to power on the back of wide grassroots support, or demanding his impeachment. On Wednesday, far-left parties already working against him before the scandal broke out will hold a protest to demand his impeachment as they prepare to launch their own candidate for the October 2006 election.
Support for Lula, Brazil's first working-class president, is slipping and could prevent his re-election. A poll on Friday showed for the first time that Lula could lose in a second-round vote in the 2006 race if opposition Sao Paulo Mayor Jose Serra run.