The event came at the end of the first day of the Torch Relay following its arrival on Brazilian soil this morning.

A flame, for the second time today, was rekindled by Rousseff, who was accompanied by Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman and Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) counterpart Julio Maglione.

The two, also respective heads of the Brazilian and Uruguayan Olympic Committees, lit Torches from the flame.

They then walked down two lines of NOC Presidents - Nuzman nimbly and Maglione more gingerly - lighting beacons from the same flame.

Nuzman, speaking in Portuguese, English and Spanish, had earlier welcomed all the NOCs to the Brazilian capital as the Torch arrived, something cynics claim had been specially designed to boost his potential bid to become the next President of PASO. 

Rousseff followed, apologising for speaking only in Portuguese as she is "an economist not a linguist", before praising Brazil and preparations for the Olympics and Paralympics, due to start in Rio de Janeiro on August 5. 

When she departed, however, the band from the Presidential Guard played the theme tune of the film franchise Mission Impossible, considered ironic by some given the wide-ranging problems Brazil continues to face with barely three months to go until the Opening Ceremony.

The ceremony came on the eve of a PASO Extraordinary General Assembly in which new Statute proposals are due to be discussed. 

It threatens to be a hostile affair with two days scheduled for wide-ranging debate, but today was about the peace and unity that the Torch Relay can bring.

Other Torch Relay events were also taking place this evening, including a private ceremony at an Indigenous Peoples Memorial.