Does Brazil favour French Rafale fighter?

Has Brazil made up its mind to buy the French Rafale fighter and thus give its maker, Dassault its first foreign sale? This question is uppermost following the publications of several reports in Brazil and Sweden during the past two days quoting the outgoing Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula told TV Brasil that it would be up to the government of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, to decide the issue. "It's a very big debt, it's a long-term debt for Brazil. I could sign off on it and do a deal with France, but I'm not going to do that," Lula said, according to an excerpt published by the state news agency Agencia Brasil. The President elect has refrained from making comments about the six to eight billion US dollars deal which some analysts and media are interpreting to mean that the deal could be scrapped altogether due to the high cost involved. In earlier reports, Swedish-made Saab Gripen NG fighter jets were reported to be ahead in the technical evaluation report submitted by the Air Force to the President’s office. However, the latter was said to favour France and its fighter, Rafale due to a strategic pact between the two countries.