Rio - The third Work Meeting session of National Coordinators of the Rio Group was scheduled to begin today at 10 A.M. in the Copacabana Palace Hotel, in Rio de Janeiro. Two sessions were held yesterday (2). These sessions are being used to prepare the proposals that will be submitted to the Chancellors of the 19 countries that comprise the Group (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Uruguay, and a representative of the Caribbean Community - Caricom).

The Ministers of Foreign Relations will meet this afternoon, and their talks will continue tomorrow (4). They are responsible for drafting the document that will be presented to the heads of government and State who plan to attend the 18th Meeting of Heads of State and Government, which gets underway tomorrow. The Rio Group, created in 1986, is a permanent mechanism of consultation and political coordination.

The Brazilian National Coordinator for the Rio Group, Minister Marcelo Vasconcelos, informed that the Brazilian government will propose the establishment of financial instruments to ensure resources for programs to combat hunger and poverty and cooperation with Haiti to reinforce the presence of troops in that country. Another item on the agenda is the creation of a South American investment authority, which would act as a financial agency to obtain and distribute resources.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Cristina Índio do Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein
11/03/2004