Lula da Silva to Clinton: "... It is not prudent to push Iran against a wall..."

Laura Rosen/ here

Hours before meeting with Hillary Clinton today, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that Brazil would not "bow down" to international pressure to agree to new UN sanctions on Iran.

"It is not prudent to push Iran against a wall," Silva told journalists today, according to the AP. "The prudent thing is to establish negotiations."

"The door is open for negotiations," Clinton later told a news conference. "But we don't see anybody, even in the far-off distance, walking toward it."

Brazil is currently a non-permament member of the UN Security Council. Clinton is traveling there as part of a Latin American tour to try to get Brazil's agreement to sign off on a new UN Security Council resolution on Iran as early as next month. But it's a particularly tough 15 member Security Council, with key current non-permament members such as Brazil and Turkey not certain to support such a resolution, Lebanon likely to vote against it, and at least one permament member, China, also reluctant. Three past UN Security Council resolutions on Iran passed overwhelmingly, with no "no" votes and only a few abstentions.

Lula is due to travel to Iran in May.