Sao Paulo  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned rich countries Friday against turning to protectionism in the current global economic and financial crisis.

"It is a mistake to think that protectionism solves the problem. Protectionism, at this point, will make the problem worse," Lula said.

The president was in the northeastern Brazilian city of Belem, where he took part in the World Social Forum (WSF) a day earlier.

"It is important to remember that, at the time when they were growing and wanted to sell, rich countries invented that globalization, the tale that trade could flow freely around the world."

"It is not fair that, now they are in a crisis, they forget the effort of free trade, of globalization, and become protectionists," he said.

Late Thursday as part of the forum, Lula and other leftist leaders celebrated the fall of the "Market-God."

"The Market-God went bankrupt due to lack of responsibility. Wall Street yuppies were busy calculating our countries' risks and are now asking governments for support," Lula said before some 8,000 people.

About 120,000 people from 150 countries were expected to take part in the forum's 2,600 activities between Tuesday and Sunday.

WSF was born as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in 2001 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where it was held also in 2002, 2003 and 2005. India hosted it in 2004, while Venezuela did so in 2006 and Kenya in 2007. In 2008 there was no one single site, but the forum was held simultaneously in 82 different countries. (dpa)