Bush leads call for Americas unity

Leaders of 34 American nations pledged to strengthen democracy, fight poverty and corruption, and unite against terrorism, despite regional conflicts and cross-border disputes that threaten the unity of the hemisphere.

As one of the first speakers at the two-day Special Summit of the Americas, held in Monterrey, Mexico, US president George Bush reached out to the rest of Latin America, saying his government was committed to “embracing the challenge ... to bring all the hemisphere’s people into an expanding circle of development”.