
“Negotiations are on the right track” and should be concluded in coming months, said Uruguayan sources adding that one of the current difficulties is what will happen with the Argentine negotiating team, following December 10 when re-elected President Cristina Fernandez takes office for her second consecutive four year mandate.

Uruguay’s Vice president Danilo Astori downplayed the effects of Argentina’s restrictive measures for the purchase of dollars and forecasted an excellent summer season with hundreds of thousands of Argentines tourists visiting Uruguay.

Uruguay’s Central bank sees “few probabilities” of a strong deceleration in emerging economies or a ‘significant’ fall in commodities prices even when lately there has been a drop in the value of grains although still above their historic average.

Brazil’s Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota said Brasilia supports Uruguay in its controversy with France following President Nicholas Sarkozy claim, at the recent G20 summit, that Uruguay was a ‘fiscal haven’.

Commercial flights in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay were cancelled or reprogrammed Tuesday morning because of disruptions caused by the hovering volcanic ash being blown from the Chilean Puyehue which erupted five months ago.

The World Bank approved last week a loan for 49 million dollars to support Uruguayan farmers in adopting environmentally sustainable practices to improve the resilience of their production systems in response to the effects of climate variability.

Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham has welcomed the UK Overseas Territories important role in agreeing new measures to protect seabirds.

President Jose Mujica said on Sunday that his peer from Brazil Dilma Rousseff will make a strong declaration in support of Uruguay when the next G20 summit to counter French President Nicholas Sarkozy recent statements in Cannes describing one of Mercosur junior members as a “fiscal haven”

The Mexican president underlined the strategic importance of Uruguay since it is the only Mercosur member that has a free trade agreement with Mexico, thus making it the ‘strategic partner’ of Mexico in Mercosur.

Uruguay received a huge political boost from Mexico (the same it was denied from its Mercosur partners under influence from Argentina) in its dispute with the recent G20 summit which through spokesperson French president Nicholas Sarkozy described Uruguay as a ‘fiscal haven’.