Bush On PR Trip In Brazil

President Bush, making his first visit to Brazil, said Sunday he wants to improve the United States' image in Latin America and convince people in the region that they share democratic values.

Fresh from the Summit of the Americas, Bush sat down to talk with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a meeting that could have an important impact on his relationship with Latin America.

Bush's motorcade passed about 150 demonstrators who shouted "Fora Bush," which means "Get out Bush," as it passed the entrance to the Granja do Torto presidential retreat where Silva is playing host to Bush for a Brazilian barbecue. They burned a small effigy of Bush while chanting "Bush fascist, you are a terrorist."

Heavily armed police officers outnumbered the peaceful protesters, who carried red flags of the PSOL, the Socialism and Freedom Party, a far leftist party formed by dissident of the ruling Workers' Party.

Speaking earlier Sunday at a meeting of young leaders, Bush said he hoped to express his country's position without alienating people.

"One of the reasons I've come to Brazil is to make that imminently clear that the U.S. is a friend of Brazil and that our values that we will be discussion are universal in nature," Bush said.

He brushed off demonstrations at a summit he attended in Argentina.

"I expect there to be dissent," he said. "That's what freedom is all about."

"It happens in Argentina. It happens in America," Bush added. "I fully understand there is at times a view of America that is, in my opinion, not an accurate view."

Brazil is the largest nation in Latin America and the fifth largest in the world. It has immense influence on its neighbors and its large population represents a lucrative market for U.S. products that Bush would like to expand.

"It's in our interest that our neighborhood be a prosperous neighborhood," Bush said. "It's in our interest that we work with the largest country in our neighborhood."

At the summit, however, Latin American nations disagreed about free trade in the hemisphere and protesters marred the meetings. Leaders from across the Americas ended their tumultuous two-day summit Saturday without agreeing to restart talks on a U.S.-favored free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Chile.

At his meeting with the young leaders, Carlos Pio, a professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia, asked Bush to respond to some Latin Americans' belief that the United States exploits democracies, markets and civil rights.

PSOL congressman Joao Batista de Oliveira Araujo said Sunday that by inviting Bush, Silva "showed how subservient he is to the Americans."

"Bush is repudiated throughout the entire world because the U.S. army is killing innocent people and because the monetary institutions controlled by the U.S. drop economic bombs on people," the congressman said.

Bush says more trade between the United States, Brazil and other nations in the Western Hemisphere would help create jobs, spread democratic values and lift people out of poverty.

Brazil was initially the United States' partner in negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas extending from Alaska to Argentina. But the 34 nations at the Summit of the Americas left their meeting Saturday divided in two factions on how to proceed, with the U.S. on the majority side looking to move forward and Brazil in a camp of five holdouts that prefer to wait for worldwide trade negotiations.

The other countries that balked were Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

The main sticking point for Brazil has been its demands that the United States reduce farm subsidies that Silva says would crowd out Brazilian products.

"Predictable as it was, President Bush walked into a political hornets' nest at the Summit and walked out with no agreement, mainly as a consequence of Venezuela's president rallying opposition," says CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk. "But, Brazil also opposed setting a firm date for trade talks."

Besides trade, issues on the agenda for Bush and Silva's meeting included the fight against drug trafficking, Brazil's leading role in the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti and Brazil's relationship with its neighbors in South America.

Bush and Silva have gotten along well in previous meetings. They couldn't have more different backgrounds. While Bush was raised in wealth, educated at top schools and is the son of a former president, Silva is a former shoeshine boy, grade-school dropout, lathe operator and radical union leader.

Both leaders are dealing with scandals that have involved top aides and driven down their popularity.

Mr. Bush makes this Latin America tour in a weakened political position. His trip comes as he faces the lowest job approval ratings of his presidency back home.

White House adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was recently indicted on charges of perjury and obstructing justice and top aide Karl Rove is under investigation for his role in revealing the identity of an undercover CIA agent. Top Silva aides have resigned in a kickback scandal.