ENCOURAGED by democratic and market reforms, western Europe is courting Latin America as never before for business opportunities, seeking to challenge US dominance of the region.
A record number of EU ministers showed up in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba or the sixth annual conference of the EU and the Rio Group of 14 Latin American nations, which ended on Tuesday.
"The right time (to boost European trade and investment) was some years ago and we missed it," said Mr Malcolm Rifkind, the first British Foreign Secretary to visit Bolivia. "We are now catching up.
During the meeting with their Latin American counterparts, the European ministers pledged to increase commerce and investment in the region, while helping to combat widespread poverty and drug trafficking.
Following the return to democratic rule in most of Latin America in the 1980s, the region's countries embarked on ambitious drive to privatise their government run services, railroads, airlines, telecommunications and oil firms. Spain, France, Britain and Italy were the European nations that invested more heavily in the privatisations.
Trade between the EU and Latin America doubled in five years to $80 billion (£51 billion) by 1995, compared with $290 billion between the US and Latin America. Direct European investment in the region totalled $7 billion in 1994.
Both Europeans and Latin Americans found a lot of common ground in their talks, including criticism of US policies from combating drugs to Cuba.
The Europeans also stressed that they had surpassed the US as aid donors to poorer nations in the region.
"We will try to explain to the US that the drug issue is not just a problem of the producing countries but also of those who consume it," the Italian Foreign Minister, Ms Susanna Agnelli, said.
The Declaration of Cochabamba issued after the meeting called for a multilateral approach to the drugs problem.
The Bolivian President, Mr Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, whose country is one of the main cocaine producers, said Washington did not like the idea, but, would eventually accept it.
Mr Manuel Marin, the European Commissioner in charge of relations with Latin America, said Europe favoured developing, alternative crops over the US approach of setting measurable targets such as quotas for coca crop eradication.