China values Latin America's role in world affairs: Hu
Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao highlighted the role of Latin American countries in maintaining peace and promoting development in the world.

Addressing the National Congress of Brazil on Friday, Hu hoped that China and Latin America will cooperate more closely and establish a stable long-term relationship.

Hu said the two sides should deepen mutual understanding and political trust and support each other politically so as to become all-weather friends.

Both sides should further strengthen coordination and cooperation in such issues as world peace and development, democracy, establishment of a just and reasonable international political and economic order and defence of the interests of developing countries.

Economically, he said, the two sides should tap potential for economic cooperation to create a win-win situation.

Hu hoped that by 2010 the two sides will boost their two-way trade to 100 billion US dollars a year and double their mutual investment.

The Chinese president also said the two sides should enhance cultural exchange, deepen mutual understanding and promote world cultural diversification.

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Rumsfeld tours Latin America to thank support of US-led effort in Iraq US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began in El Salvador (news - web sites) a week-long tour of Latin America, including Nicaragua, Panama and Ecuador, to thank the region for its support of the US-led effort in Iraq (news - web sites) and the fight against international terrorism. As the only Latin American nation with troops in Iraq, "El Salvador is a strong ally of the global war on terror, and a nation that understands well the global struggle for liberty and democracy," Rumsfeld told a group of US veterans living here after his arrival here. He compared El Salvador's civil war (1980-1992) to what is happening in Iraq and stressed that El Salvador was now "one of the freest and most stable countries in the hemisphere and the people of the US take special pride in having stood with you during those tough times." Rumsfeld praised the courage of Salvador's some 370 troops in Iraq -- Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic also sent troops to Iraq before they withdrew them fearing reprisals. Rumsfeld told of a squad of 16 Salvadoran soldiers who some months ago "came under attack by assassins," saying the Salvadorans "fought until they ran out of ammunition" and, defending their ground, "fought against their criminals with their knives" until reinforcements arrived. "In that battle several Salvadorean soldiers were wounded, and one, Natividad Mendez, was killed. The US mourns his loss, his family and his country knows that he's joined the ranks of those patriots throughout history who gave it all on behalf ... of freedom," Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld on Friday is expected to meet with Salvadoran President Antonio Saca and his Defense Minister Otto Alejandro Romero. Later he will bestow the bronze medal of valor to six members of the Salvadoran Army's Cuscatlan batallion who on March 5 saved the lives of several American troops in Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad. The US defense secretary will later fly on to Nicaragua and Panama before heading to Quito, where on Wednesday he will attend a meeting of Latin American defense ministers. In the Ecuadoran capital, Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday en route to El Salvador, "we will be talking about strenghtening the interamerican system, about peacekeeping and the role that so many of these countries are playing in Haiti, which is important." Brazil heads a UN peacekeeping and stabilization mission in Haiti, but its members have been complaining of being undermanned, since the 3,100-strong mission is less than half the original 6,700 member force that was promised for this year. Margaret Daly Hayes, security and defense expert at Washington's Georgetown University, told AFP that Haiti was "the most critical issue right now" for the United States, and that Rumsfeld planned to thank Brazil for its help in stabilizing Haiti after the fall of president Jean Bertrand Aristide in February. Drug trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, gang warfare and how the region's police and armed forces can coordinate to better cope with them are other issues on the Quito agenda, a senior Pentagon (news - web sites) official told reporters on Rumsfeld's plane. "It's the lesson we learned after 9/11," said the official who requested anonymity referring to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. "If you wait until they hit you, it's too late. The potential for bad things to happen is there." "We certainly believe that it's important for the region to have a strenghtened security system ... and our country can be helpful in that," said Rumsfeld. This is Rumsfeld's third official visit to Latin America, following a trip to Santiago in 2002 and to Honduras and Bogota in 2003.