Porto Velho (Brazil) (AFP)

Hundreds of new forest fires are raging across Brazil, the most devastating in the Amazon in recent years, and international pressure mounted on Saturday to push Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to act.

An AFP team that flew over the state of Rondonia (north-west) Friday found the presence of multiple fires.

The residents of Porto Velho met on Saturday were expressing fears over the cloud of smoke that dominates the main city of the area.

"I am very worried about the environment and our health," Delmara Conceicao Silva told AFP. "I have a daughter who has breathing problems and she suffers more with fires".

The fate of the largest rainforest on the planet is at the heart of the G7 summit taking place this weekend in Biarritz, in the south-west of France.

The latest official data indicates that 78,383 fires have been recorded since January, a record since 2013.

In the Amazon, when a forest is cleared, the trunks are washed away but the rest of the vegetation is burned on site during the dry season, which lasts from July to November. For farmland, or grasslands, vegetation and weeds are also piled up, waiting for the dry season. That's what's burning right now, say the experts.

More than half of these fires are in the Amazon, where more than 20 million people live. Some 1,663 new fires were lit between Thursday and Friday, according to the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE).

The boss of INPE was sacked in early August after publishing data on deforestation deemed untrue by Jair Bolsonaro: they showed that deforestation in July was almost four times higher than that recorded in the same month of 2018.

These new figures are made public the day after Mr. Bolsonaro announced the deployment of the army to fight against the flames and fight crime in the region.

- "Welcome Help" -

The American Donald Trump and the British Boris Johnson offered their help.

"Any help with fires is welcome," Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva told reporters Saturday.

The images of the "lung of the planet" on fire caused a global emotion.

With cries of "Save the Amazon", demonstrations gathered several thousands of people in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Friday, others took place in front of the embassies and consulates of Brazil in the world, with the call of numerous NGOs.

This environmental crisis is such that it threatens to torpedo the EU-Mercosur trade agreement (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) signed in late June after 20 years of negotiations.

"It is difficult to imagine a harmonious ratification process by the European countries as long as the Brazilian government will allow the destruction of the green lung of the Earth," warned Saturday the President of the European Council Donald Tusk shortly before the opening of the G7.

Emmanuel Macron on Friday accused Jair Bolsonaro of having "lied" about his commitment to the environment and announced that under these conditions, France was opposed to the EU-Mercosur treaty.

"There are forest fires all over the world and this can not be used as a pretext for possible international sanctions," the Brazilian head of state said Friday in a short televised address.

He also accused on Twitter his French counterpart of wanting to "foment hatred against Brazil by simple vanity". Shortly before, he tweeted: "The most ardent fire is that of our sovereignty over the Amazon", of which 60% are in Brazilian territory.

"The NGOs are losing money, coming from Norway and Germany, they have no more jobs, they are trying to overthrow me," he said on Thursday, referring to the suspension by these two countries their grants to the Amazon Fund dedicated to the preservation of the huge rainforest.

© 2019 AFP