Brazil's Congress should approve Rousseff's accounts - minister

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff looks on at the prime minister's official residence in Helsinki, Finland, October 20, 2015. REUTERS/Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government has fine-tuned arguments aimed at defending President Dilma Rousseff from a ruling that her administration manipulated federal accounts last year, and expects Congress to approve them, Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner said on Wednesday.

The Federal Accounts Court, or TCU, last month said the government had manipulated its accounts in 2014 to disguise a widening fiscal deficit as Rousseff, a leftist, campaigned for re-election, and recommended lawmakers reject the figures.