SAO PAULO: The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45 per cent and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil's government says.

According to the latest annual figures, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009. The drop is welcome news for the government in advance of the Copenhagen summit on climate change.

But Greenpeace says there is still too much deforestation and the government's targets are not ambitious enough. According to the Brazilian space agency the annual rate of destruction fell by 45 per cent. Welcoming the news, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the drop in the level of deforestation as "extraordinary". He said climate change was the most challenging issue the world was facing. Some environmentalists believe that the fall in deforestation may be connected to the economic downturn.