RIONEGRO, Colombia (AFP) - Leaders of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela pledged to work toward establishing a new free trade zone in Latin America by the end of the year while stepping up the fight against terrorism.
Wrapping up a two-day summit of the Andean Community, the presidents said, in a final declaration, that they were determined to work toward defining a common security policy that will help stabilize the region wracked a major guerrilla war in Colombia and active narco-trafficking.
This policy will include "specific action plans aiming to combat terrorism and corruption," the document stated without elaboration.
At the same time, the Andean leaders agreed to continue work on a plan to merge their community with Mercosur, a free trade bloc in South America that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
They said they will establish a schedule for negotiations aimed at concluding a free trade agreement between the two entities by December 31.
A joint summit of Mercosur and Andean Community leaders will be held in July or August at a location that still remains to be determined, according to the agreement.
The summit is expected to help Latin Americans come up with a joint strategy in free trade talks with the United States, as the North and the South try to reach their goal of creating a Free Trade Area of the Amricas, a common market with about 800 million consumers, by the end of 2005.
But while ackowledging the importance of regional trade, the leaders of the Andean Comminity underscored the importance of commercial ties with other parts of the world, including China, Russia, India and Japan.
The declaration called for continued political and economic dialogue with the European Union in order to launch negotations on free association with that trading bloc.
It also expressed support for developing political dialogue between Mercosur, the Andean Community and Chile, a rising economic power in Latin America.
"Economic intergation in South America should not be occurring at the expense of our other endeavors," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who traveled here to meet with the community leaders as an envoy from Mercosur.
"We must have the wisdom to find proper solutions to our common problems," he stressed.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, normally a critic of the proposed free trade agreement, praised the Brazilian leader for his enthusiasm for bringing down regional trade barriers and said he was leaving the summit with optimism.
"For the first time, we have confronted this issue head on," Chavez said. "Lula helped us a lot to clarify the situation."
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