Eneas Carneiro, outlandish Brazil politician, dies

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 7 (Reuters) Brazil's Eneas Carneiro, a three-time presidential candidate who developed a nationwide following with an extravagant style and ultra-nationalist views on nuclear weapons, has died at age 68 of leukemia.

He was to be buried today.

Carneiro gained fame in Brazil's first popular elections after military rule in 1989. Bespectacled, bald and sporting a bushy beard, he sounded like a mad scientist while rapping rival candidates and multinational companies during short TV spots before barking his sign-off, ''My name is Eneas!'' While some saw him as a dangerous neo-fascist and others as a political joke, many Brazilians considered him a staunch patriot, albeit outlandish.

Carneiro, a former medical doctor, finished a surprising third in the 1994 presidential election with nearly 5 million votes. He became a federal deputy in 2002, winning a record number of votes and was reelected last year.

The founder of the extreme-right Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order (Prona), he said Brazil should build a nuclear bomb to get the world's respect. He also called for halting payments on government debt, nationalizing Brazil's mineral resources and boosting military spending.

He died yesterday at his Rio de Janeiro apartment, where he had asked to be transferred from a hospital a few days earlier.

The leukemia treatment made him lose his trademark beard.

The lower chamber of Congress declared a day of mourning today and the flag outside the house flew at half-staff.

''He always maintained his ideological and political stance firmly regardless of who he was talking to,'' said lower chamber president Arlindo Chinaglia.

REUTERS RS HS2244