Blair making history in Americas

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair meets Jamaican Prime Minister P.J.Patterson in Kingston on Sunday

BRASILIA, Brazil (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making history this week with visits to Jamaica, Brazil and Argentina.

Blair arrived in Brazil's futuristic capital on Monday for the first official visit to the country by a British head of state following a one-day stop in Jamaica on Sunday -- the first time in 14 years that a serving British premier has visited the former British colony.

But the most symbolic moment of Blair's trip occurs on Wednesday, when he is scheduled to travel across the Brazilian border to Argentina -- becoming the first serving UK prime minister to visit since the two countries went to war in 1982 over the South Atlantic islands the British call the Falklands and the Argentines call Malvinas.

On Sunday, Blair met Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Caribbean leaders on Sunday. They discussed increasing trade and cultural ties, and Blair announced a £200,000 ($285,400) police training package to help drugs and gang and street violence -- problems that have spilled over onto British streets.

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"We've seen an increase in the number of murders in parts of London involving criminal gangs from Jamaica," British Foreign Office Minister Baroness Valerie Amos told Reuters. Jamaica has seen more than 70 people killed in recent politically charged violence.

In Brazil, Blair will meet President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brasilia before heading to Sao Paulo, the country's financial and economic capital. Blair, who is to visit Brazil's Embraer aircraft company, is accompanied on the trip by a dozen British business executives, including Sir Ralph Robins of Rolls-Royce and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild of NM Rothschild.

The Brazil-UK trade relationship dates back to the turn of the century, when British companies helped build Brazilian railway bridges. Last year Brazil exported nearly $1.5 billion worth of goods to the UK, with Britain exporting $1.2 billion in goods to Brazil.

In 1992, then-British Prime Minister John Major travelled to Brazil, but only to attend the U.N. environment conference in Rio de Janeiro and not as part of an official state visit.

On Wednesday, Blair heads to Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian-Argentine border for trilateral talks with Cardoso and Argentine President Fernando de La Rua. Then Blair and de La Rua will fly from the Brazilian side of the border to the Argentinean side for the historic private talks.

Blair's visit to Argentina comes nearly 20 years after the two countries were at war. The 74-day war, between April and June 1982, cost the lives of 650 Argentines and 255 Britons.

However, British officials have made clear that the soverignty of the islands will not be discussed, and that the main topic will be trade and Argentina's financial crisis. Trade between Argentina and Britain is worth about £400 million, and the Argentine Senate this week approved drastic budget cuts in an attempt to revive the economy and forestall investors' fears.

Although this is the first trip by a serving British prime minister since the war, diplomatic ties between the two countries were long since re-established. In 1998, then-Argentine President Carlos Menem made an official visit to Britain, paying his respects at a memorial to the British servicemen who died in the war.

Two years ago, Britain's Prince Charles was welcomed in Argentina to further ties between the two countries.

Tension surrounding the issue of the islands remains high, however. Although Britain retook them in the war, Argentina has never renounced its claims over the islands. The British initially declared sovereignty over them in 1833.