U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brazil today and although the stop is just one of six on her Latin American tour, her agenda in Brasilia sets it apart from all the others.

Clinton has made no secret of the fact that her top priority in Brazil is to convince President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to drop his opposition to a new round of sanctions against Iran in the UN Security Council.

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations committee on February 24, Clinton told legislators that “Iran is at the top” of her agenda these days as international momentum for sanctions increases.

Her trip to Latin America follows a trip to Middle East, during which she asked Saudi Arabia — which is one of China’s chief suppliers of oil — to use its influence to persuade Beijing to support a sanctions package.

Clinton told the committee that “we are — and it’s not just I, it’s the top levels of the State Department — are engaged very directly in working the need for sanctions.”

Indeed, so important is Clinton’s visit to Brazil that she sent her top deputy ahead to lay the groundwork. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, who heads the U.S. team of negotiators in the P5-plus-1 group that has been working to get Iran to stop its nuclear program, was in Brazil last week.