Akhir 12, 1432 H/March 17, 2011, SPA -- Upgrades to Brazil's airports will be opened up to private investment to ensure they are completed in time for the 2014 World Cup, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said in an interview published Thursday, dpa reported. Rousseff told the Valor Economico business newspaper that the government is getting ready to make «a strong intervention» to fix the nation's overcrowded airports. «We will accept investments from the private sector that are adequate to the needed expansion plans,» she said. «We don't have any bias on how to increase the investments in that area.» Rousseff said the government will allow the private sector to bid for contracts to try to speed up the expansion and renovation of the airports, one of the biggest challenges for the country preparing to host the World Cup for the first time since 1950. The private sector funds would supplement the public investments already planned to get the airports ready, Rousseff said, adding that a civil aviation ministry will be created to oversee the country's civil aviation agency and the nation's airport authority. The president acknowledged earlier this week that it won't be easy to get everything done ahead of the monthlong tournament four years from now, but said she is certain the event will be a success. Rousseff said the infrastructure investments for the World Cup will reach nearly $20 billion, including about $3 billion in the airports that will handle the more than 600,000 visitors expected to travel to Brazil in 2014.