RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Brazilian government on Wednesday to push for the return of an 8-year-old boy to his U.S. father, who says his son was abducted illegally more than four years ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a joint with news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (not pictured) in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 4, 2009. REUTERS/Fadi Arouri

Clinton, speaking in Jerusalem on NBC’s “Today” program, said she had raised the case at the “highest levels” of the Brazilian government and urged it to grant U.S. citizen David Goldman custody of his son, Sean.

“Mr. Goldman has, under every known law of international adoption, followed the rules,” she said. “He’s come in, he’s made a claim, which is certainly a paramount claim that as the biological father he has every right to have custody of his son.”

Goldman’s wife, Bruna, took Sean on vacation to her native Brazil in 2004, then divorced him and stayed there in what Goldman says was a case of international child abduction. She died last year in childbirth and her new husband is refusing to return the boy to Goldman, who lives in New Jersey.

The new husband, a lawyer, is living with the boy in Rio de Janeiro, where Goldman saw him for the first time in four years last month.

Brazilian local courts have declined to grant Goldman custody, despite both Brazil and the United States being signatories to the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention.

The treaty states that a child taken to one country by a parent in violation of the other parent’s custody rights should be promptly returned to their original country pending court rulings.

The case is due to be heard in a federal court in Brazil.

An official at Brazil’s foreign ministry, asked about Clinton’s comments, said the issue was a judicial one and would be decided by the courts. The official confirmed that Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim had discussed the case with Clinton during their meeting in Washington last month.

Clinton, who compared the case to the high-profile dispute between the United States and Cuba in 2000 over Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez, said there were 46 such cases involving Brazil.

“A child belongs with his family and there is no reason why David Goldman should not get his child back, and we’re hoping that will be resolved very soon,” Clinton said. “Obviously if it’s not, we’ll continue to raise it with the Brazilian government.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is due to visit U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on March 17 for their first talks since Obama became president in January.