MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CAN-Mercosur accord delayed.
Live sheep and cattle for Jordan.

The presidential summit of Mercosur and the Community of Andean Nations, CAN, scheduled for mid-December in Montevideo, Uruguay, when a free trade accord was expected to be signed, has been delayed and the meeting will only be at ministerial level, indicated Uruguayan Foreign Affairs Minister Didier Opertti.

"In spite of the commitment to a December deadline, conditions were not the best", explained Mr. Opertti.

Apparently persistent differences involving agriculture and foods have surfaced again in a Mercosur-CAN technical meeting ?the fourth since last August--, currently taking place in Ecuador.

The Community of Andean Nations is composed of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

"The discussion is not new, it has being going on for some time; it's not a simple process but it's not impossible", said Gustavo Vaneiro head of the Uruguayan delegation in Quito.

Negotiations with CAN will now be headed by Argentina that will be taking the chair of Mercosur for six months next January.

Live sheep and cattle for Jordan

Uruguay will be shipping for Jordan 90,000 live sheep and 10,000 cattle during the first half of December.

The sheep includes ewes and one year lambs, plus pregnant Holsein heifers and one year old calves.

This is the second shipment for Jordan, the first was last June.

A special vessel for carrying live animals is on its way to Montevideo after having unloaded a shipment of Australian sheep.