Ibero-American Nations Agree on Permanent Organization
Leaders of the 21 Ibero-American states voted over the weekend to turn the organization into a formal, permanent international community by early next year as they ended a summit meeting in San José.

The leaders approved plans to promote education, denounce ''terrorism in all its forms'' and called for working together - rather than alone - to solve global problems.

Until now, the Ibero-American gatherings have been more or less isolated summit meetings. However, they increasingly refer to themselves as a community.

The nations agreed to create a new post of secretary-general in the first half of 2005, establishing a new international bureaucracy, based in Spain to oversee action on their resolutions.

''In a few months, Ibero-America will speak as a legal entity in the world and with political relevance,'' Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero told a news conference.

Zapatero noted that the new organization would link 500 million people in the Spanish and Portuguese  speaking nations of Europe and the Americas.

Enrique Iglesias, current president of the Inter-American Development Bank, was widely mentioned as the most likely candidate for the secretary's post.

In other agreements, the delegates urged lenders to let poor nations pay part of their debts by investing in education. Spain vowed to do so next year. Zapatero also promised Central American countries he would try to win them a free-trade pact with the European Union next year.

Cuba won a resolution denouncing all forms of terrorism - implicitly including attacks on Cuba - and criticizing a Panamanian pardon for four men accused of trying to assassinate Fidel Castro. Three of the men - referred to by the summit leaders as ''known terrorists'' - live in the United States.

New Panama President Martin Torrijos had bitterly opposed the pardon granted by his predecessor, Mireya Moscoso, days before she left office on Sept. 1.

Cuba announced it would begin to restore ties with Panama that were cut after Moscoso's action.

Before the summit began, a strong, early-morning earthquake shook the delegates attending the summit from their beds.
 

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