Brazil’s president kicked off a day of meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing, during which analysts said he could broach a plan to ditch the US dollar in his nation’s trade with China.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and other leaders for talks focused on boosting business with China and promoting closer cooperation to fight the global financial crisis.

But all eyes were on whether China and Brazil would come to an agreement on ditching the US dollar in their bilateral trade and replacing it with their own currencies — the yuan and the real.

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“It’s absurd if two important trading nations such as ours continue to carry out our commerce in the currency of a third nation,” Lula said in an interview published in the most recent issue of China’s Caijing magazine.

Lula first discussed the idea with Hu at the April G20 summit in London and said he would raise the issue on his visit to China, in what would be another challenge to the US dollar’s special status as the leading global currency.

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