Ethanol will be on the table when Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meets with President Bush in Washington this weekend.

The meeting will be a follow-up to Bush’s visit to Brazil earlier this month and, according to an Associated Press report, Silva “hopes to advance a biofuels alliance and help break a deadlock in world trade talks.”

Silva on Friday reiterated Brazil’s position that the alternative fuel will not gain traction worldwide unless the United States drops a 53-cent per gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol.

The alliance’s “goal is to ensure conditions for ethanol, and later biodiesel, to become globally marketed commodities,” Silva said in a column published in The Washington Post. “This will only be achieved if trade in biofuels is not hindered by protectionist policies.”