Brazil is implementing the first of several infrastructure projects worth $265 billion that will make the country a huge construction site, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday.

Investors have been closely watching the plan Lula announced in January for the business and jobs it is expected to generate.

Lula said that next week he would begin releasing funds and detailing the construction of roads, railways, ports and airports.

Some are already under way, others will begin now and others still require licenses, Lula said on his weekly radio broadcast.

The fact is we are going to convert this country into a real infrastructure construction site.

A series of transportation bottlenecks -- from potholed roads to crowded ports -- increase costs and often delay exports of numerous farm and industrial products.

Lula has toured the country during the past two weeks, launching public works projects in basic sanitation, such as water and sewage treatment.

Bids for those projects, which will receive about $21 billion by 2010, would be held by February, Lula said on Monday.

Investments would go first to cities that most needed them, regardless of party affiliation of the mayors, Lula said.

Additional investments in schools, recreation, and culture would improve public security in shantytowns, he said.