Chavez hijacks Bush's South American tour with attack on 'wolf in sheep's clothing'

As the two leaders embarked on separate visits, Mr Chavez - who has made poverty reduction a central plank of his own domestic agenda - said the proposals of his ideological rival were nothing more than a "wolf in sheep's clothing". He also mocked a $75m (£39m)initiative to help teach Latin American children to speak English. "He's a symbol of domination and we are a cry of rebellion against the domination ... he's trying to trick our people to divide us," said Mr Chavez, before heading for a meeting with Argentina's president, Néstor Kirchner. "We don't need tips from the empire."

Such comments were poised to continue last night as Mr Chavez was scheduled to lead thousands of supporters at a rally in a football stadium in Buenos Aires, at around the same time as Mr Bush was due to arrive in neighbouring Uruguay.

For his part yesterday, Mr Bush, meeting in Brazil with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, finalised a new agreement to enable the trading of ethanol. "It makes sense for us to collaborate for the sake of mankind," Mr Bush said. "We see the bright and real potential for our citizens being able to use alternative sources of energy that will promote the common good."

But the deal has done nothing to remove the main block on international trade in ethanol, which is the 54 cents a gallon tariff the US imposes on all imports in order to protect its farmers. Brazilian analysts have been frustrated at Washington's posturing on bio-fuels while shutting cheap ethanol out of its market.

"This is not about combating climate change, it's about protecting the corn belt," said Dr Plinio Nastari, one of Brazil's leading economists and an expert in biofuels, before the deal.

Brazil leads the world in the production of cheap ethanol distilled from sugar cane - a product that can be manufactured with only minimal use of fossil fuels. The US, however, has shut its markets to imported bio-fuels and funnelled billions of dollars of subsidies to its own agri-business giants to produce grain-based ethanol. Environmentalists and economists agree that corn-based ethanol, with its heavy reliance on fossil fuels during production, delivers practically no net benefit on carbon emissions.

President Bush, who will push free-trade agreements that favour the US during the rest of his Latin American tour, said that US tariffs and subsidies were not even open for discussion. Instead, the White House offered a deal that would allow technology sharing and seek to impose industry-wide standards to stimulate trade between Latin American markets.

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