Landless Brazilians are impatient with the pace of change

Agricultural Development Minister Miguel Rossetto said the extra $600m (�340m) would enable 115,000 families to be settled this year.

The minister insisted the announcement was not linked to a wave of land grabs this weekend, co-ordinated by the country's landless peasants' movement.

Brazil's richest fifth is estimated to control 90% of the land.

The poorest 40% of the population only controls 1% of the land, according to estimates provided by the Roman Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission.

This makes Brazil's land distribution one of the most inequitable in the world.

Existing budget 'insufficient'

The Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is a former labour rights activist who was elected on a platform of pledges to ease the lot of the poor.

Recent media reports have indicated that Lula, as he is known, is unhappy with the pace of progress on land redistribution.

His government has already allocated $500m to settle landless peasants - a sum Mr Rossetto said was insufficient.

Since the beginning of the year, said Mr Rossetto, some 11,000 families - or about 50,000 people - have been settled across the country.

'April will catch fire'

Last weekend, a peasants' pressure group, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement, occupied what they term as unproductive farmland on 22 ranches.

The largely non-violent organisation leads land invasions to pressurise the government into acting on their plight.

Its leader has warned that the peasants' patience is wearing thin.

"Civil servants, servants, students, the homeless, we, the landless, the rural people will make life hell. April will catch fire," Brazilian media quoted Joao Pedro Stedile as saying.