Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro speaks during a ceremony to announce new measures for Brasil Empreendedor (Entrepreneurial Brazil) credit programme at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil 25 May 2022.; Credit: Adriano Machado / Reuters

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday 26 May 2022 complained that United States (US) President Joe Biden ignored him at a G20 summit last year and suggested it was due to the 79-year-old's age, as he confirmed he would attend their first bilateral meeting amid chilly relations.

President Bolsonaro, 67, said he will attend the Summit of the Americas hosted by President Biden next month in Los Angeles, despite what he called a "freeze" in Brazil-US ties since the US president took office in 2021.

"I met him at the G20 (Group of leading economies) and he went by as if I did not exist, but that was how he treated everyone. It might be the age, I don't know," Bolsonaro told reporters.

President Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist and open admirer of former US President Donald Trump, confirmed that he will meet with President Biden on the sidelines of the summit. President Bolsonaro was one of the last world leaders to acknowledge Trump's 2020 electoral defeat and has not yet met with President Biden.

"I was inclined not to appear. Given Brazil's size, I cannot just go there for a photo op ... I am not going there to smile, shake hands and pose for a photograph," he told reporters.

President Biden sent his special adviser for the Americas summit, former Senator Chris Dodd, to Brasilia on Tuesday to convince President Bolsonaro not to skip the bilateral meeting.

President Bolsonaro said he told Mr Dodd about the change in the behavior of the United States towards Brazil when President Biden took office.

"With Trump things were going very well. We had agreed on many things to do here in Brazil", he said, without giving details.

Presidents of Argentina and Mexico have previously said they will not attend the summit, in solidarity with left-wing governments in Venezuela and Cuba that were not invited.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he would reflect and probably make a final decision on Friday.

Relations between Brasilia and Washington remain frosty over President Bolsonaro's environmental record and his repeated attacks on Brazil's electoral court and voting system, which he says calls vulnerable to fraud without providing evidence.