London, Mar. 23 : A furious Manchester City and Brazilian football star Robinho has demanded an apology and an explanation from erstwhile soccer great Pele for accusing him of taking drugs.

A spokesman for Brazilian Robinho said: "We strenuously refute any such suggestions. The notion of him taking drugs is absurd and we completely deny it. We are trying at this moment to get Pele to clarify the situation. We think these comments have been genuinely misunderstood or got lost in translation."

The Sun quoted the spokesman as saying further that they will press for a retraction if one does not come voluntarily.

Rio de Janeiro  - Brazil's national development bank mulls a 700-million-dollar loan to Argentina's national carrier Aerolineas Argentinas to finance the acquisition of Brazilian-made planes.

Luciano Coutinho, the president of Brazil's national development bank BNDES said Friday that the country would provide a loan to the Argentinian government.

Aerolineas Argentinas is said to plan buying 26 of Brazil's Embraer 190 passenger planes to replace older Boeing and McDonnell Douglas jets.

Rio de Janeiro  - Brazilian Formula One driver Felipe Massa is out to show in 2009 that he has the stuff of champions and to prove wrong those who say he is not good enough to get beyond the position of perennial second driver at Ferrari.

When he joined the Italian scuderia in 2006, Ferrari boss Jean Todt said a low profile could be his new driver's main problem.

"Felipe is a great guy. He has a good spirit, he's a team player, he's humble, he's shy - probably too humble and too shy in this business, because he's not rated as he should be," Todt said.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama insisted Saturday

Washington  - US President Barack Obama met Saturday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for talks on the global financial crisis and energy issues.

Obama's meeting with Lula at the White House was his third with a foreign leader and first with one from Latin America, signalling the importance with which his administration views the region and its role in pulling the world economy out its downturn.

Brazil so far has been able to weather the bad economy. The two leaders discussed next month's summit of the world's 20 leading economies.

Washington  - The US government is urging Brazil to return an 8-year-old boy to his father in the United States in a case that could come up when US President Barack Obama holds his first meeting with his Brazilian counterpart on Saturday.

The boy lives with his stepfather in Brazil. A New Jersey court has ruled in favour of his father, David Goldman, and decided the boy, Sean, should be returned to the United States. But a Brazilian court has granted custody to his stepfather.