Bush looks to blunt Chavez appeal on Latin trip

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (Reuters) President George W Bush, hoping to blunt the populist appeal of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said today he will use a Latin America tour to pledge help to improve the plight of the region's poor.

In a speech to a Hispanic group, Bush sought to project a more humanitarian side to America's image, which has been dominated under his presidency by an emphasis on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking.

He leaves on Thursday on a week-long tour through Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

The Bush administration is trying to make friends with more moderate leftist leaders in Latin America, where anti-US sentiment runs high.

The trip comes as Washington is adjusting to political changes in a region where 12 elections last year saw a broad range of leftists come to power, including some who openly challenged U.S. policies.

Without mentioning Chavez, Bush said he recognised that tens of millions of people across Latin America were questioning the value of democracy and that the benefits of it have not trickled down to everyone.

''The millions across our hemisphere who every day suffer the degradations of poverty and hunger have a right to be impatient,'' Bush said.

He said he wanted people in the region to understand that ''you have a friend in the United States of America, we care about your plight.'' Bush outlined plans to provide an additional 385 million dollars to expand affordable housing programmes in the hemisphere, and a three-year, 75 million dollars initiative to help Latin American youth learn English and get the opportunity to study in the United States.

He also announced he would send a Navy medical ship, the Comfort, to Latin America and the Caribbean in June to treat 85,000 patients and conduct up to 1,500 surgeries.

The vessel will make port calls in Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname.

He also announced a new health care professional training center in Panama that will serve all of Central America.

It will be Bush's first foreign trip of the year and the White House acknowledged that the president's emphasis on fighting terrorism and drugs and pushing free trade had deflected attention from aid programs for the poor.

''One of the problems we have in Latin America is that the trade, terrorism and counter-narcotics agenda has caused people not to pay enough attention to the other half of his agenda, which is not just making these areas safer but making them better,'' said White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

While the White House insisted Bush's trip is not aimed specifically at countering Chavez, the Venezuelan firebrand figured to be a frequent theme.

Chavez rankled US officials last September at the United Nations by mocking Bush as the devil, an image he resurrected last month by vowing to send sulfur to Brazil for Bush's visit there.

Reuters SRS VP0300