Latin American Summit Absences Limit Hopes

BARRY HATTON

ESTORIL, Portugal (AP) — Leaders from Latin America and Europe on Sunday opened a summit they hope will identify new paths to economic growth and quell some of their diplomatic disputes.

But the absence of eight leaders, including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, from the 22-nation talks made any major breakthrough on Latin American tensions unlikely.

The annual Iberoamerican summit is due to study ways of harnessing new technology that might ease the South American economies' dependence on oil, farming and mining.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said in a speech he wanted the summit to "expand our cooperation in innovation and the knowledge-based economy."

The three days of meetings between 19 Latin American countries and Spain, Portugal and Andorra also traditionally provide a forum to air diplomatic grievances.

Pressing issues include Sunday's disputed elections in Honduras and feuding between neighbors Colombia and Venezuela over Colombia's military agreement with the United States.

Officials arriving for the summit-opening dinner were either unavailable or declined to speak about any diplomatic overtures taking place behind the scenes, apart from to say those issues would be discussed.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe held closed-door talks with Spain's King Juan Carlos but refused to comment to reporters afterward.