MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Andean presidents confront divisions

The members of a four-nation Andean trade alliance are charting a new course ? without President Hugo Chávez's Venezuela and with uneven US relations ? as foreign ministers gathered in Quito yesterday.

??The idea is to harmonize criteria and relaunch the Andean Community of Nations so it can constitute a solid bloc,'' said Francisco Carrión, Ecuador's foreign minister, a day before the meeting of presidents from Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia.

Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Alfredo Palacio, Colombia's Alvaro Uribe and Peru's Alejandro Toledo all confirmed their attendance.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was not invited, said Ecuador's presidential secretary, José Modesto Apolo. ??We have not asked for the presence of any president who is not part of the Andean Community,'' Apolo told Channel 8 television, adding that it would be up to the other four leaders whether to seek Venezuela's return to the trade bloc.

Chávez, a fierce critic of US-backed trade liberalization, announced in April he was abandoning the Andean bloc, saying it had been ??fatally wounded'' after Colombia and Peru signed individual free trade pacts with Washington. Those deals have yet to be ratified by those nations' legislatures.

Carrión said a primary agenda item will be pursuit of a free trade pact with the European Union. Another, he said, will be seeking an extension of trade preferences granted by Washington since 1991 ? in part to help Andean countries diversify from the production of coca leaf, the raw material used for producing cocaine.

The preferences ? covering thousands of products ? are scheduled to end later this year.

Free trade talks between Washington and Ecuador stalled last month after Ecuador cancelled US-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s contract and seized its facilities following a long-standing contract dispute.