Obama wins summit praise

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday won praise for offering a closer partnership with the Americas, even from left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who moved to restore normal ties with Washington.

But Obama, attending his first Summit of the Americas, came under pressure from Latin American and Caribbean leaders to lift the U.S. trade embargo against communist-ruled Cuba.

Brazil joined Venezuela and Caribbean nations in applauding Obama's new approach, but the friendly atmosphere was tempered by repeated calls for Washington to do more to end its half-century-old ideological conflict with Cuba.

"Relations with Cuba will be an important sign of the willingness of the United States to relate to the region," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at the summit meeting in Port of Spain.

"There is no place in our continent for policies of isolation," Lula said, referring to the embargo against Cuba.

Chavez even suggested Cuba, the only country excluded from the regional summit, could host the next one.

Obama told 33 other leaders from across the Americas at the summit on Friday that he wanted a new beginning with Cuba and was open to discuss with Havana issues ranging from human rights to the economy.

But he also 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, 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 U.S. official told reporters. "He said everything we do in relation with Cuba is informed by a real concern for democracy."

The warm reception for Obama contrasted with the Summit of the Americas four years ago in Argentina, where leftists like Chavez attacked the "imperialist" policies of former President George W. Bush.

After speaking with Obama, Chavez, a standard-bearer for anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America, named a former foreign minister as his envoy to Washington in a move to restore relations between his OPEC nation and the United States.

Caracas and Washington expelled ambassadors last year in a dispute over Bolivia, but Chavez said he had "no doubt" ties with the White House would improve under Obama. The appointee for ambassador, Roy Chaderton, is Venezuela's representative in the Organisation of American States.

"Now we just have to wait for the United States to give Chaderton the approval to take up this important post to direct a new era in relations," Chavez told reporters.

SMILES AND GIFTS

Addressing Obama directly during the plenary session, Chavez told him, in English: "I want to be your friend." The greeting drew applause from the other leaders.

Earlier, Chavez presented the U.S. president with a book, "The Open Veins of Latin America," by left-wing Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. Obama accepted the gift with a smile.

"I thought it was one of Chavez's books," the U.S. leader joked later. "I was going to give him one of mine."

The summit, the first of its kind to be held in the English-speaking Caribbean, was looking at ways to counter the global economic crisis, develop energy resources and tackle the dangers of climate change and trafficking in arms and drugs.

Discussions focussed on the impact of the global crisis that has halted growth and threatened to send millions of people back into poverty in underdeveloped states of the region.

But the meeting was dominated by debate over U.S.-Cuban ties after both Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro indicated they were ready to talk to try to end the decades of hostility between their two countries.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. government was evaluating Raul Castro's statements this week.

"We think that was a change in their rhetoric that we haven't seen in quite some time and one that certainly bears more investigation," Gibbs said.

Obama earlier this week eased parts of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, but most of the Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathered here want it scrapped completely.

Brazil's Lula welcomed Obama's moves to relax the sanctions but described them as "insufficient." "It's important they be amplified, but without conditions," he said.

(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher, Guido Nejamkis and Linda Hutchinson-Jafar in Port of Spain; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Will Dunham)