US president Barack Obama won praise today for reaching out to the Americas at a regional summit but Latin American and Caribbean leaders pressured him to end the long-standing US embargo on Cuba.
Mr Obama, attending his first Summit of the Americas, has promised an era of better cooperation with the hemisphere and offered a new start to communist-ruled Cuba. He won early approval from left-wing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Brazil joined Venezuela and Caribbean nations applauding Obama but the warm atmosphere was tempered by repeated calls that Washington do more to end an ideological conflict with Cuba that has marked the hemisphere for half a century.
"He should advance rapidly toward what he's called a new relationship with Cuba, based on respect, without conditions, I think there's a good possibility of that happening," Mr Chavez told reporters at the summit in Trinidad and Tobago.
Mr Obama told regional leaders on Friday his administration wanted a new beginning with Cuba and was open to discuss with Havana issues ranging from human rights to the economy.
But he wants political reforms from Havana in return, a condition that has blocked rapprochement in the past.
At a closed-door meeting with South American leaders Mr Obama urged the hemisphere to focus on democracy in Cuba.
"The president responded that he understands the importance of Cuba for Latin America," a senior US official told reporters. "He said everything we do in relation with Cuba is informed by a real concern for democracy."
The summit, the first Summit of the Americas to be held in the English-speaking Caribbean, is looking at ways to counter the global economic crisis, develop energy resources and tackle the dangers of climate change and arms- and drugs-trafficking.
The first plenary session of the summit focused on the impact of the global crisis that has halted growth and threatened to sends million back into poverty in the most underdeveloped states of the region.
"We have to put people first," Chilean president Michelle Bachelet told the other leaders,
But the meeting has been dominated by debate over US-Cuban ties after both Mr Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro indicated they were ready to talk to try to end the long-standing hostility between their two countries.
Mr Obama's talks with 33 other leaders of the Americas, including Canada, came after earlier this week he eased parts of the US embargo against Cuba, which was not invited to the Americas Summit.
"I hope this is the last summit of heads of state without Cuba," Bolivian president Evo Morales said, echoing calls from Brazil and Venezuela. "Obama has the obligation to repair the political and economic damage done to Cuba."
The warm reception for Mr Obama from countries from Brazil to Venezuela contrasted with the last Americas Summit four years ago in Argentina, where leftists such as Mr Chavez attacked the "imperialist" policies of former president George W. Bush.
"I think we're making progress at the summit," Mr Obama told reporters after his meeting with South American presidents.
At the official summit photograph, Mr Obama was seen chatting and smiling with Mr Chavez and Ecuador's president Rafael Correa, a leftist former finance minister, who has in the past pilloried US-backed free market policies.
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government called for senior US officials to visit countries in the region that have had rocky relations with Washington.
Mr Chavez, a standard-bearer for anti-US sentiment in Latin America, shook hands with Mr Obama late on Friday in a signal of improved relations between his Opec nation and its largest oil client, the United States.
Mr Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas last year in a dispute over ally Bolivia but he said he had "no doubt" ties with Washington would improve with Mr Obama in the White House.
"We've begun talking with Obama and I think we've got off to a good start," he told reporters.
Addressing Mr Obama directly during the plenary session, he told him, in English: "I want to be your friend."
As today's meeting started, Mr Chavez presented the US president with a book, "The Open Veins of Latin America," by left-wing Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. Mr Obama accepted the gift with a smile.
Reuters