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35 nations unite for historic conference

Caribbean and Latin states plan a better future

Foreign ministers from 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations convened in the Cuban capital Havana on Monday for a summit of Western hemisphere countries - minus the United States and Canada.

Topics of discussion included the cultivation of traditional crops, historical disputes such as Argentina's claim to the British-controlled Falkland Islands and initiatives to promote literacy in the region.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that he was "deeply pleased" and the talks had exemplified an "extraordinary and permanent spirit of solution."

Heads of state met and will continue today at the second summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).

US-dominated Organisation of American States secretary-general Jose Miguel Insulza also arrived on Monday after being invited to attend as an observer - an unusual encounter 52 years after Cuba was kicked out of the OAS.

The OAS was formed in 1948. In 2009 it formally ended Cuba's suspension, but Havana said then that it was not interested in rejoining a group that merely advances Washington's interests.

"The celebration of this summit ... in Havana demonstrates Cuba's importance in the process of Latin American and Caribbean integration," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said. "Only with Cuba will our region be complete."

Mr Rousseff and Cuban President Raul Castro led a ceremony launching a new port built with Brazilian financing.

Also attending as an observer was UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon.

He toured the colonial old quarter with city historian Eusebio Leal, who oversees the restoration of the neighbourhood.

The United Nations Development Programme and other UN agencies were "working very closely to help the Cuban government and people to preserve this area," Mr Ban said.

He met Mr Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro, a leading LGBT and women's rights advocate and head of the National Centre for Sex Education.

"I would like to take this opportunity to symbolically give the secretary-general of the United Nations my personal commitment and that of the centre to join his campaign to end violence against women and girls," Ms Castro said.

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