Chavez was probably isolated in his view, and what stopped near-unanimous agreement was instead Brazil's demand that there should be a good outcome from the WTO's Doha Round in Hong Kong in December before they will consider the FTAA. This is a not very concealed attempt to put pressure on the developed nations to make deeper cuts in farm tariffs than are currently on the table.

"Anything we do now, before the WTO meeting, could confuse the facts and we'd be creating an impediment to the WTO," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Mexican President Vicente Fox downplayed Chavez's anti-capitalist rhetoric, saying: "This is a personal position of the Venezuelan president," and suggested that the 29 pro-FTAA nations should proceed anyway with their discussions.

The US says the proposed FTAA would open up new markets for Americans and bring wealth and jobs to Latin America and US officials at the summit are reasonably bullish about the prospects for progress on the FTAA. Last June, President George W. Bush said Washington would continue to push for the FTAA, saying that free trade would strengthen democracy in the Americas, and that a pan-American trade pact would unite the region in prosperity and reduce the risk of "false ideologies".

The effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area began at the Summit of the Americas, which was held in December 1994 in Miami. The Heads of State and Government of the 34 democracies in the region agreed to construct a Free Trade Area in which barriers to trade and investment will be progressively eliminated.

They agreed to complete negotiations towards this agreement by the year 2005, and to achieve substantial progress toward building the FTAA by 2010. But a consensus on the agreement has been difficult to achieve, leading may regional politicians to speculate that the FTAA may never see the light of day.

In May, however, the Director-General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, said that the member countries of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, are prepared for the possible resumption of Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations.

Dr Bernal declared that the region is "actively positioning itself to re-shape the 'vision' of the FTAA, in accordance with Regional development goals and priorities."

The CARICOM statement went on to explain: "The FTAA is an integral part of the strategic trade options being explored by the Region, in order to create sustained economic development in highly open economies. As such, CARICOM Countries continue to attach importance to the FTAA process and its objectives, despite the eighteen month hiatus and mounting expressions of doubt over the successful conclusion of negotiations.

"While the Miami Ministerial Declaration altered the original 'vision' of the FTAA, the objectives and philosophy which underpinned the vision of the thirty-four Heads of Government during the first Summit of the Americas in 1994 remain unchanged, and relevant to CARICOM Countries and their hemispheric partners.

"The establishment of a single economic space through the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) remains an essential part of the Region's preparatory process for the FTAA. CARICOM Countries view the FTAA as forming the broad platform for their trade integration in the Hemisphere, and therefore are keen on the expeditious resumption of formal negotiations."