Latin America-Europe leaders make pledges

The regions' fifth summit in a decade concluded on Friday just a day after Interpol vouched for the authenticity of documents implicating Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in efforts to support Colombian rebels. Interpol's report prompted impassioned denials from Chavez.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia opened the summit with an appeal for nearly 60 leaders or top officials to put aside petty issues and focus on setting clear strategies to combat poverty and global warming.

"It is imperative that what unites us take precedence in our meetings," Garcia said. "We leave aside, for the moment, what we disagree on."

In the summit's final declaration, leaders vowed to fight poverty, drugs and crime and said they were "deeply concerned by the impact of increased food prices," which have spiraled as global demand for commodities soars.

"We agree that immediate measures are needed to assist the most vulnerable countries and populations affected by high food prices," the declaration said, stressing the need to support rural farming "to meet a growing demand."

Garcia suggested that every country aim to increase food production by 2 percent.

The declaration also encouraged free trade and cooperation on biofuels, although those goals were not as universally endorsed.

Bolivia and Ecuador in particular resisted plans for a trade association between the Andean Community and European Union, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was forced to defend biofuels such as ethanol -of which his country is the world's largest exporter.

"Obviously, the oil industry is behind" criticism of alternative fuels, Silva told reporters in Lima, dismissing claims that corn- and sugarcane-based ethanol are partly responsible for soaring food prices.