Montevidéu - One of the ever-present problems in economic blocks, different levels of economic development, got special attention by president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during the XXV Mercosur summit this week.

Lula explained that there was a longstanding commitment to providing weaker economies with assistance in order to keep the economic block strong as a whole. "It has always been clear that the bigger economies will have to help the weaker ones," said Lula, as he added that the way to reduce disparities was to finance infrastructure projects. "We need to differentiate the way we deal with Paraguay and Uruguay from the way we do with Argentina." (AB)