Brazil VP: country needs atom bomb

Brazil's vice-president and former defence minister has said his country should develop nuclear weapons.

Jose Alencar, who led the defence ministry from 2004 to 2006, said in an interview with several Brazilian news media broadcast on Saturday that his country needed atomic weapons.

"The nuclear weapon, used as an instrument of deterrence, is of great importance for a country that has 15,000 kilometers of border to the west and a territorial sea where oil reserves have been found," he said.