Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) and Argentine counterpart Mauricio Macri have agreed on a new vision for the Mercosur trade bloc.

"We agreed on the need to improve Mercosur, changing the work agenda, evaluating an initial proposal of opening trade," said Bolsonaro, in a televised speech after he received Macri in capital Brasília.

During his presidential election campaign last year, Bolsonaro criticized Mercosur and said Brazil should sign free trade agreements with countries around the world. Brazil is one of the founding members of Mercosur, together with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Without providing details, Bolsonaro said Mercosur must reduce its bureaucracy in order to sign more trade deals with other nations.

Bolsonaro also said he wanted to bolster Brazil's already strong ties with Argentina.

Argentina is one of Brazil's main trading partners after China and the US.

VENEZUELA AND MADURO

Bolsonaro and Macri also criticized Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro.

Macri said he considers the Maduro regime to be a dictatorship.

"We condemn the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Maduro wants to stay in power with fictional elections and by embarrassing opponents," Macri said in the televised speech.

Bolsonaro said that Brazil views the last presidential elections in Venezuela as being illegitimate.