Bush opens Latin America tour to boost US ties

WASHINGTON, Mar 8 (Reuters) US President George W Bush opens a week-long tour of Latin America today aimed at strengthening ties with a region tilting to the left and influenced by the populist appeal of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Addressing speculation his trip was a response to Chavez, Bush said his intention was to show the United States cared about its neighbors.

''It's nothing more than to say we want to be your friends, and we've got a very strong policy of improving the lives of others,'' Bush said in an interview with Colombia's RCN TV on the eve of his departure.

''My trip is a chance to tell the people of Colombia, Uruguay and Brazil and Guatemala and Mexico that the United States cares deeply about the human condition,'' he said, listing the five nations on his itinerary.

Asked whether he was concerned about Chavez's influence in Latin America, Bush told RCN that people in the region were free to choose whatever system of government they wanted.

''To the extent that people feel like they can nationalize companies I think is a mistake,'' Bush said without mentioning Chavez by name.

Chavez, who has irked Washington with his self-proclaimed socialist revolution and the nationalization of utilities, has given his leftist allies in Latin America billions of dollars in the past few years.

The Bush administration said it gave about 1.6 billion dollars in aid to Latin America last year.

Earlier this week, Bush announced plans to provide an additional 385 million dollars to expand affordable housing programs in the region. He also said he would send a Navy medical ship, the Comfort, to Latin America and the Caribbean in June to treat 85,000 patients.

The State Department said Bush was not trying to compete with Chavez, who angered US officials last September at the United Nations by calling the US president the devil. The Venezuelan leader plans to hold a protest in Argentina while Bush is in neighboring Uruguay.

About 2,000 protesters, students and union leaders rallied in downtown Bogota on Wednesday, chanting anti-US slogans to protest Bush's visit three days before his arrival in Colombia.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is a staunch supporter of a U.S. free-trade deal and has received millions in aid from the Bush administration to fight Latin America's longest-running rebel insurgency and the country's huge illicit drug trade.

''We are protesting against Bush's visit and against how Alvaro Uribe has got on his knees before the US empire,'' opposition lawmaker Wilson Borja said at the protest.

In an interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision, Bush said he was neither surprised nor angered by protests in the countries he will visit.

''I am proud to be going to a part of the world where people can demonstrate, where people can express their minds,'' he said.

REUTERS BDP VC1205