MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rio Group suspends presidential summit

The Rio Group presidential summit scheduled for next August 25/26 in Bariloche, Patagonia, has been suspended but Foreign Affairs ministers will be holding an extraordinary meeting, according to Argentine diplomatic sources.

Problems with presidential agendas of some of the 19 Rio Group members forced the decision. However the Foreign Affairs meeting will be held in Bariloche on the same date scheduled for the major event.

No new date was arranged for the presidential summit which has to take place sometime before the end of the year when Argentina finalizes its term as temporary chair of the Rio Group.

Until this week only nine of the 19 presidents had confirmed their assistance.

The decision arrived following talks between Argentina, Brazil and Guyana who currently are members of the Rio Group troika.

Any tentative date for the regional summit will have to be after the Americas Summit which is meeting in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on the 4 and 5 November with the participation of the hemisphere's 34 presidents including US president George Bush.

Rio Group Foreign Affairs ministers met last month in Pilar, Argentina, and among other issues addressed the overlapping of regional meetings and summits.

Other points included the situation in Haiti, where United Nations peace forces are keeping a fragile truce and trying to organize free elections before the end of the year, and the coming Americas Summit agenda and working on a minimum joint platform.