MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - Leaders from across the Americas, wrapping up a two-day summit overshadowed by rampaging protesters, faced a deadlock Saturday over the future of a free trade zone spanning the Western Hemisphere.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said talks to lift trade barriers from Canada to Chile must wait until after the World Trade Organization hosts key negotiations in Hong Kong next month to craft a global treaty slashing tariffs and farm subsidies and boosting the planet's economy.
"Anything we do now, before the WTO meeting, could confuse the facts and we'd be creating an impediment to the WTO," Silva told reporters on the sidelines of the summit at Argentina's most renowned summer resort city.
Mar del Plata was calm Saturday after protesters opposed to the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, clashed in street battles with riot police, burning and ransacking businesses just 10 blocks from the theater where the leaders were opening the summit.
Protests have become commonplace at summits, especially those dealing with free trade and U.S. policies. The last Americas summit, nearly two years ago in Monterry, Mexico, also saw protesters swarm the streets denouncing Bush.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez emerged as the most vocal critic of the FTAA, declaring the deal dead at a peaceful rally Friday for more than 20,000 protesters.
Mexican President Vicente Fox expressed irritation with Chavez, saying: "This is a personal position of the Venezuelan president."
The Mexican president denied allegations by Chavez that Washington is trying to strong-arm the region into a free trade agreement.
"No one has ever been forced into a free trade deal," Fox said.
Summit participants will include language in their final declaration about the FTAA, but appeared set to fail to include an April date to restart high-level talks wanted by 29 of the 34 Latin American and Caribbean nations holding the event.
The declaration is also expected to address key issues for Latin America - including job creation, immigration and disaster relief for an area that is often devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes.
But the battle over the future of the FTAA dominated the summit. Fox said the 29 countries want a version adopted that sets the April dateline for negotiations, but the dissenters are holding out for language that mentions no date and says "conditions are not right" for an FTAA because key issues like agricultural subsidies for American farmers have not been addressed. The declaration must be approved by all member nations.
Venezuela is the only country that vehemently opposes the trade zone. Chavez has said an anti-FTAA should be formed just for Latin America and the Caribbean based on socialist ideals.
Fox argues that the 29 countries that want to forge ahead should form the trade zone on their own - even though that would leave out Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and dash hopes of creating a bloc that would eclipse the European Union.
Though there were no immediate signs that protests would reignite on Saturday, security remained tight at the summit site, where a huge downtown section of Mar del Plata remained closed by metal barriers and police and soldiers toted semiautomatic weapons.
Leftist activists also protested Friday in Uruguay, Venezuela and Brazil - where Bush heads for a much-anticipated visit with Silva after the summit ends.
The violence was front-page news Saturday across Latin America, with dramatic photos of young masked rioters smashing the glass storefronts of at least 30 businesses in Mar del Plata, setting a bank ablaze and battling riot police with slingshots and sharpened sticks.
Sixty four people were arrested, but police reported no deaths or major injuries.
Bush leaves Argentina later Saturday and flies to Brasilia to stay the night and be Silva's guest at a barbecue Sunday before heading to Panama.
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The American president's visit is aimed at strengthening relations with Silva, who was distrusted by Washington after becoming the first elected leftist leader of Latin America's largest country in 2003.
But Silva - a former shoeshine boy, grade-school dropout, lathe operator and radical union leader - abandoned his leftist rhetoric and has stabilized Brazil's economy.
Protesters who participated all week in a peaceful "People's Summit" demonstration in a sports complex a mile from the oceanfront hotel where the leaders stayed were gone Saturday, after leaving Mar del Plata in caravans of buses and minvans.
As children skateboarded in a shady park, workers dismantled a tent that hosted a delegation from Cuba, whose communist regime was not allowed to participate in the Americas Summit. Argentine security guard Sebastian Lopez, 30, hoped the leaders would denounce the violent protests because they unfairly overshadowed both events.
"What I saw with my eyes all week at the People's Summit was a joyful and peaceful celebration," he said.