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Bush woos Mexico, Canada at summit

Leaders of the Americas pose for a group photo in front of the Foundry Park during the Special Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

The US reached out to its neighbors on Tuesday, smoothing tense relations with Latin American leaders as the 34-nation Summit of the Americas ended.

Canada and Mexico won the biggest prizes from the US, with US President George W. Bush telling Canada it would be eligible for a second round of US-financed reconstruction contracts in Iraq that the administration valued at about US$4.5 billion.

A day earlier, Mexican President Vicente Fox accepted an invitation to visit Bush's ranch in Texas and praised his proposal that would allow migrants to work temporarily in the US.

Others also welcomed Bush's plan, with Honduran President Ricardo Maduro saying it would "allow us to have closer ties to Latin Americans in the United States."

But countries complained the region was not doing enough to battle poverty. During negotiations, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent asked: "What's the use of freedom if people are poor?"

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said governments need "a new development concept" that distributes income fairly.

"If we want a world that is safe and stable, we must strive toward a just and fair world," he said.

Outside the meeting site, in the mountains of northern Mexico, about 100 anti-globalization protesters clashed with police, hanging an effigy of Bush on a security barrier and burning it before a wall of riot police.

Bush arrived at this week's summit to find many nations publicly criticizing his free trade stance.

The leaders agreed to support a hemisphere-wide trade area without setting a firm deadline, a concession to Brazil and Venezuela.

The US had sought a 2005 deadline for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The summit's final declaration calls for following the FTAA's "established timetable," with no specific date mentioned.

Although the original timetable called for an accord by 2005, recent FTAA talks have stalled on the prickly issues of removing agricultural subsidies and intellectual property rights. Many have questioned whether the original timetable is still realistic.

Despite expressing reservations about the declaration, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would sign the document. He pushed summit participants for a humanitarian fund that could be used to help countries during financial and natural disasters, and leaders said they will consider the proposal.

In addition, the summit declaration does not call for banning corrupt governments from future summits, as the US requested. Instead, the declaration only calls for consultations on countries that don't meet the requirements of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption.

Washington's concessions appeared aimed in part at reversing the region's increasing disenchantment with US policy.

In return, countries pledged to "intensify our efforts and strengthen cooperation" to fight terrorist threats.

Before the meeting, Brazil protested new US security measures requiring the fingerprinting and photographing of arrivals by doing the same to Americans traveling to Brazil.

Argentina also sparred with US officials, who criticized Argentine officials for meeting Cuban authorities, but not the communist island's dissidents.

Venezuela's Chavez has criticized US support for a referendum on his recall from office, saying Washington should stop "sticking its noses" in his country's affairs.

On Monday, Chavez refused to attend the summit's official dinner and called the gathering of American leaders a "waste of time." He said he missed the lunch on Tuesday because he was on the phone with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi planning a summit between Latin American and African nations.

After listening to Caribbean leaders lament the millions who die of AIDS in their region, Bush said leaders needed to "work on prevention and treatment" and ensure that countries can distribute drugs as they become available under new international rules.
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