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LIMA : US President George W. Bush, bidding farewell to the international stage, on Saturday offered a sweeping defence of free trade, demanding the world resist protectionism during the financial turmoil.
Bush was one of 21 leaders from the Asia-Pacific region huddling in Peru, where they were expected to seek a boost in global trade in hopes of jump-starting the ailing global economy.
The unpopular US president was holding final meetings with other leaders and was bracing for a potentially tense summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was launching a defiant tour across Latin America.
Staunchly defending his often controversial eight-year presidency as he prepares to hand over to Barack Obama, Bush summed up his philosophy as "free markets, free trade and free people."
"I believe there is an Almighty and I believe a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth is freedom," Bush told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on his final foreign trip as president.
A smiling Bush, occasionally peppering his remarks with Spanish, pointed to his efforts to promote free trade as a key achievement, saying that opening the giant US market has alleviated poverty abroad.
He vowed to press hard in his final two months in office to break a deadlock in World Trade Organization negotiations, a pledge made by 20 world leaders last week in Washington for a summit on the financial turmoil.
"We refuse to accept protectionism in the 21st century," Bush said emphatically.
"It's true the free market system isn't perfect. It can be subject to excess and abuse," he said.
"But the verdict of history is unmistakable."
The free market "offers people the opportunity to buy and sell products as they see fit, gives people the dignity that comes from profiting from their talent and their hard work," he said.
Despite massive job cuts and plummeting growth rates across the world, Bush predicted that capitalism would eventually be vindicated.
"Recovering from the financial crisis is going to take time, but we'll recover, and in so doing begin a new era of prosperity," he said.
Obama, despite his wild popularity around much of the world, has sparked concerns among some Asian leaders that he would take the United States in a protectionist direction.
While the APEC summit was expected to offer a call against protectionism, some leaders were more critical than Bush of the free-market system.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that oil-rich states and companies, which reaped in profits until recently from sky-high energy prices, now had the duty to help solve the economic crisis and fight poverty.
"With this great wealth should also come a moral duty," Yudhoyono said late Friday.
Yudhoyono said while he did not agree with nationalization, he believed that "the strong have to help the weak, and that great fortunes should also be utilized for the greater good in the spirit of compassion and human solidarity."
Peru deployed nearly 40,000 police to guard the leaders, who were meeting in the tightly controlled army headquarters used two decades ago as a torture chamber.
Bush was due later to meet with Medvedev and to hold a joint summit with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.
The summit with the Asian powers was expected to focus on ways to give a push to a six-nation deal to end North Korea's nuclear program, one area where Bush has held out hope for a last-minute success.
Medvedev is launching a four-nation tour of Latin America, traditionally Washington's sphere of influence. Russia's relations with the United States have rapidly deteriorated in recent months in part over Washington's plans to place a missile defense shield in former Soviet bloc nations.
But Bush had a more friendly farewell meeting Friday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who thanked the president for improving relations between the Pacific powers and invited him to visit China after leaving office.
- AFP /ls
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