BRASILIA (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may visit Brazil late this month, a Brazilian foreign ministry official told AFP Tuesday.

"The possibility exists. The US secretary of state has been invited by (Foreign) Minister Celso Amorim and now the visit depends on us getting their agendas to coincide. The dates 27 and 28 of May are possible," said the official who declined to be named because the meeting was not yet confirmed.

If Clinton does make the trip, it would signal an uptick in US attention towards Latin America's biggest economy, which is being actively wooed by several states with which Washington has uneasy relations.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun on Monday met with Amorim in Brasilia to discuss trade and stalled multilateral talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad early this month postponed a planned visit to Brazil until after June 12 elections in his country.

And China, which has steadily been increasing trade with Brazil, has been pushing for closer ties. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to visit Beijing next week to see his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, and sign several bilateral agreements.

Clinton on May 1 expressed concern over "disturbing" Iranian and Chinese inroads into Latin America and said she was keen on more engagement.

"We are competing for attention and relationships with at least the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians," she said.