BRASILIA - (AP) -- A former Brazilian president officially threw his support behind opposition presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday, breaking ranks with the governing coalition.

  José Sarney, who was Brazil's president from 1985-1990 and now serves in the Senate, said da Silva would help keep the country stable.

  The presidential election is in October.

  ''Lula will have my support. With his experience as a negotiator, he will be a strong component of stability because of his knowledge of the union movement and civil society,'' Sarney told reporters. ``Contrary to what they say, he will be a point of stability and not instability''

  A former metal worker and union leader, da Silva has been leading the presidential polls for the past several months. The prospect of his leftist Workers' Party assuming the presidency, however, has made investors jittery.

  Although Sarney's Brazilian Democratic Movement Party formally backs government-supported candidate José Serra, his support for da Silva is generally seen as
  payback for a federal police raid that sabotaged his daughter's presidential campaign earlier this year.

  Sarney believes Serra's backers were behind the raid that uncovered allegedly illegal funds for Roseana Sarney's campaign, forcing her to drop out of the campaign.

  Sarney's support is seen as a boost for da Silva, who will likely face another left-wing candidate, Ciro Gomes, if the election goes to a second round, as is widely
  expected.

  Serra's campaign has so far failed to take off and he is running a distant third.

  In Brazil, if no candidate gains more than 50 percent of the votes in the Oct. 6 election, the two leaders go to a runoff three weeks later.

  Another former president, Itamar Franco, also has broken with the government's coalition to support Lula as well.