SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP):

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced a new programme yesterday to sharply decrease unwanted pregnancies in Latin America's largest nation by subsidising birth-control pills.

Less than a month after Pope Benedict XVI criticised government-backed birth-control measures during a visit to Brazil, Silva said the plan will give poor Brazilians "the same right that the wealthy have to plan the number of children they want".

Brazil already hands out free condoms and birth-control pills at government-run pharmacies across the nation.

But many poor people among the population of 190 million do not go to those pharmacies, so the government decided to offer the pills at significantly reduced prices at 3,500 private drug stores, said Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao.

The number of drug stores offering the subsidised pills should rise to 10,000 by the end of this year, Temporao said. When the 100 million real (US$51 million) programme is fully under way, the government will be handing out 50 million packages of birth-control pills each year. Each government-subsidised package - with enough pills to last a month - will cost 0.40 Brazilian reals (US$0.20). They now retail for five reals (US$2.56) to 50 reals (US$25.60).

The health ministry said it does not plan to subsidise condoms at private drug stores, but Brazil already has an anti-AIDS programme that provides millions of free condoms annually, often just before the debauchery seen during the nation's carnival celebrations.

Temporao also announced that the government plans to increase the number of free vasectomies performed at state hospitals.

During his visit to Brazil May 9-13, Benedict repeatedly railed against legalised contraception as a threat to "the future of the peoples" of Latin America.