BRASILIA 

 Brazil lost more than 20,000 square kilometers (7,722 square miles) of Amazon rain forest in 2004, but the government said it will win it back.
"For 2004, we do not have official data, but there is a trend that will come very close to 2003," when 23,750 square kilometers (9,169 square miles) environment minister Marina Silva said.
The area of rain forest lost to settlers and farmers is greater than half the area of Switzerland, which is 41,290 square kilometers (15,942 square miles).

"It is important to remember that deforestation was growing in 2001 and 2002 at 28 percent. In the first years under (President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) it dropped to two percent," she said.
"Beginning in 2005 ... with the resources we have allocated to combat deforestation, we hope that those numbers will fall," she said.