Cuba and Brazil are engaged in more diplomatic activities this week seeking to expand economic cooperation, with top officials exchanging visits to each other.

Brazil's Minister of Tourism, Gastao Vieira, who was in Havana Wednesday to attend Cuba's annual travel trade fair, urged the two countries to boost cooperation in tourism and said they are experiencing a defining moment in the sector.

Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel was also in Havana for a brief visit.

On Monday, he signed with his Cuban counterpart Rodrigo Malmierca a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at financing a project to expand and modernize Cuba's airports.

Brazil plans to offer Cuba 176 million US dollars in credit to modernize the airports in Havana, Santa Clara, Holguin, the resorts of Cayo Coco and Cayo Largo, and key tourism destinations. The credit line is being studied by Brazil's state-run National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

According to Brazilian sources, the airports project will be carried out by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which is also in charge of the 900 million-dollar Mariel port project, funded in part by the BNDES. The bank funnelled 680 million dollars.

In Havana, Pimentel also met Cuban leader Raul Castro. Both of them praised the excellent state of the bilateral relations and reaffirmed their mutual willingness to continue strengthening them.

As Pimentel visited Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez travelled to Brazil and held talks Monday with President Dilma Rousseff and his Brazilian counterpart Antonio Patriota.

Patriota and Rodriguez studied the possibility of having some 6,000 Cuban doctors work in Brazilian areas lacking health care through a deal involving the Pan American Health Organization.

Patriota said recruiting Cuban doctors would contribute to enhancing cooperation between the two governments.

Rodriguez expressed his country's interest in learning more about Brazil's experience in credit and tax policies for small and medium companies as Cuba tries to modernize its economy and encourage private enterprises.

Brazil is Cuba's sixth largest trading partner, its biggest food supplier and a major client of Cuban biotech drugs and vaccines.

According to official data, bilateral trade between Cuba and Brazil grew sevenfold between 2003 and 2012, and from 2010 to 2012 alone, Brazilian exports to the Caribbean island rose 36.9 percent.