US President George W. Bush on Sunday ramped up his efforts to curb Venezuela and Cuba's clout in Latin America, accusing them of trying to "roll back" fragile democratic and free-market gains in the region.
After talks with Brazilian Pres-ident Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bush bowed to his host's view that successful WTO negotiations have to precede new talks on creating the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Bush, who reportedly brought his own food and chef to the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, also made a point on Sunday of praising Brazil's shared passion with his home state of Texas: barbecue.
PHOTO: EPA
Lula served Bush -- who was on his first visit to Brazil -- trad-itional fare of beef, lamb, ox tail and some cheese, according to the White House.
The US president, who had predicted the meal "will remind me of home," later declared the meal "unbelievably good barbeque."
He also promised to take Lula up on a fishing invitation once he leaves the White House.
Amid concerns in Washington that poverty may enhance the appeal of anti-US, economically populist messages, Bush said in a speech that "ensuring social justice for the Americas requires choosing between two competing visions."
"One offers a vision of hope. It is founded on representative government, integration into the world community and a faith in the transformative power of freedom," he told students, diplomats and business leaders.
"The other seeks to roll back the democratic progress of the past two decades by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people," he said.
He never named Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but White House aides tacitly acknowledged that they were the targets of what was the keynote speech of a five-day, three-country trip to the region.
Bush also celebrated US ties with the region's richest economy despite opposition here to his vision for a mammoth hemispheric free-trade zone stretching from Canada to Chile.
"He has got to be convinced, just like the people of America must be convinced, that a trade arrrangement in our hemisphere is good for jobs, is good for the quality of life," Bush conceded during a joint appearance.
In a joint statement, the two leaders vowed to work together to promote improved governance, regional and trans-regional dial-ogues, development and poverty alleviation.
Bush and Chavez stayed away from each other at the 34-nation summit in Argentina, where Venezuela and four other countries including Brazil blocked progress on the FTAA. Castro was not invited.
Brazil has said there is no point in doing so until after the so-called Doha Round of WTO talks, which have bogged down over agricultural subsidies -- the same chief obstacle in the Americas trade debate.
Lula called US aid to its farmers "unjustified barriers to our bilateral trade" and that he and Bush had explored their differences "without surprises or confrontations."
Earlier, in a roundtable discussion with prominent Brazilians, Bush shrugged off the sometimes violent protests he attracted at the summit in Argentina, saying: "I expect there to be dissent. That's what freedom is all about."
Outside the residence where Bush and Lula met, some 200 protesters chanted "Fascist Bush, the real terrorist" and burned an effigy of the US president dressed in a shirt with a swastika.
Also see story:
Americas' free-trade zone facing an uphill struggle
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