"The president on Thursday flew over the areas affected by the rains and flood and saw that the drama is much greater than initially believed, so he has decided to stay in Brasilia to closely follow the relief operations," a Lula spokesman told AFP.

Brazil will be represented at the G20 summit by Economy Minister Guido Mantega, who was traveling to Canada, the official added.

Relief efforts in many of the flooded areas of northeastern Alagoas and Pernambuco states finally reached their targets Friday, with food and drinking water distributed for the first time in some localities.

In Branquinha, 80 kilometers (50 miles) outside Alagoas capital Maceio, firefighters struggled for hours in vain to retrieve the body of a woman trapped in the rubble of her collapsed house, on the banks of the Mundau river.

The death toll from this week's torrential rains in the northeast currently stands at 51, but the number of missing people was drastically scaled back Thursday from several hundred to 56.

Collection centers for humanitarian donations have sprouted across Brazil, as solidarity with flood victims rivals only the national passion for soccer, which keeps even flood victims riveted to TV broadcasts of the home team's matches in South Africa.

Power comes on and off at the makeshift shelters set up at a recreation center in Uniao dos Palmares, near Branquinha, but flood victims there were able to see the entire Brazil-Portugal match on Friday.

"It's going to end in a draw. They both have good players," a prescient 21-year-old Edivaldo said at the start of the match, watching a television set propped up on a couple of chairs as he rocked his toddler son in his arms.

"Cristiano Ronaldo is Portugal's best and Luis Fabiano is Brazil's best," he added.

After seeing everything they owned swallowed up by some of the worst flooding in the region, the afflicted inhabitants of Rio Largo, Branquinha, Uniao dos Palmares and Santana do Mundau and other flood damaged towns now seek some comfort in seeing their home team winding toward the World Cup finals.

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