US President Barack Obama has been given a warm welcome by leftist counterparts from Latin America at a regional summit in Trinidad and Tobago.He swapped handshakes with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who famously likened George W Bush to the Devil, and accepted the gift of a book.

He also shook hands with Chavez allies Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Ecuador's Rafael Correa.

Earlier, he urged a "new beginning" with Cuba, which is not at the talks.

"I think we're making progress at the summit," Mr Obama told reporters after a meeting on Saturday with key South American leaders in Port of Spain, ahead of summit plenary sessions.

Summit leaders are expected to address the economic downturn and the region's energy and security needs at the talks, which end on Sunday.

Aides to the US leader say he hopes to squeeze one-on-one meetings into his schedule along with the plenary sessions and group gatherings.

'Intelligent man'

Though he had already shaken hands with Mr Obama when they met at the summit on Friday, Mr Chavez greeted him again on Saturday, this time pressing on him a book.



In taking the gift, Mr Obama assumed it was a book by Mr Chavez himself, he said later.

However, it was a Spanish-language copy of The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, a book by Eduardo Galeano chronicling exploitation in the region.

Asked about his first meeting with George W Bush's successor, Mr Chavez said: "I think it was a good moment.

"I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous US president."

It was unclear whether the two presidents would have a one-to-one meeting.

Cuba is excluded from the summit, which includes 34 members of the Organisation of American States (OAS), though Latin American leaders have been calling for the communist country to be readmitted.

The US has not maintained high-level diplomatic relations with Cuba since Fidel Castro led the island's revolution in 1960.

Cuban President Raul Castro said on Thursday that he was ready to talk about "everything" with the US, including human rights, political prisoners and freedom of the press.

His comments came after the US eased its embargo, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money home more easily.

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