Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez ratified Friday in Buenos Aires their intention to create an organization of countries which produce and export Natural gas, according to dpa. The agreement came on the same day that Brazil and the United States signed in Sao Paulo a memorandum of understanding to promote the production and use of ethanol across Latin America and the world. US President George W Bush is currently in Brazil, on the first leg of a regional tour that will also take him to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. Outspoken US critic Chavez and Kirchner, both leftists, signed a series of economic, scientific and technological agreements, and declared that such plans "are strategic elements that are forming the second national independence." "We have to become great gas producers once again. We are going to recover positions together, with the help of Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and all of us who can work jointly," Kirchner said in the presidential residence in Olivos. "This is crucial because it will give us natural gas for growth at adequate levels." Chavez too defended energy independence and also spoke of the productive transformation for his country. "Venezuela (was about) exporting oil and importing the rest. And that is where the great disequilibriums, not only economic but also social and territorial come from," he said. Chavez is set to participate in a mass rally at a football stadium in Buenos Aires on Friday night, before flying to Bolivia on Saturday.
