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U.S. still hopeful about Latin America -- or so it says *** In a region where politics has generally moved in cycles -- dictatorships in the '70s, center-left democracies in the '80s, and pro-business governments in the '90s -- a leftist victory in Brazil could influence Argentines to elect a leftist president in their own upcoming elections late this year or next year, and could encourage Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chávez, to radicalize his ''Bolivarian Revolution,'' the alarmed Latin American diplomats say. ''The regional scenario in the second half of this year will be critical,'' says Argentina's ambassador to the United States, Diego Guelar. ``The anti-free market credo is gaining ground. There is a mistaken perception in the region that Argentina was the best student, that opened its economy the most, and that this was the reason why it ended so badly.''

But several U.S. officials reacted with skepticism to these gloomy scenarios. ''There is a general [regional] commitment to market economies and open trade that remains firm,'' says Lino Gutierrez, the No. 2 official at the U.S. State Department's Latin American affairs office. ``We are encouraged that the Argentine government is beginning to take the steps necessary to put the country on better economic and financial footing.''

Asked about the South American domino scenario, another senior Bush administration official noted that the same kinds of theories were floating around a little more than year ago, when many predicted that populist former President Alan García would win in Peru, and that leftist former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega would win in Nicaragua, and that the whole region would move left. It didn't happen. Bush administration officials are confident that, over the next three months, the U.S. Congress will give President Bush ''fast-track'' authority to expedite new free-trade agreements, and that this will lead almost immediately to expanded trade benefits for Andean countries, and to the signing of a bilateral free-trade agreement with Chile. ''All of these things are going to change the atmosphere in this hemisphere,'' a senior Bush administration official says.***

30 OAS Ministers Sign Deal to Fight Terror *** BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) - Countries from the United States to Chile pledged to fight terrorism together, agreeing to a new treaty designed to increase security across the Western Hemisphere in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The foreign ministers from 30 of the 34 nations in the Organization of American States signed the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism on Monday at the annual general assembly of the OAS. "More than ever before, the Americas stand together today against terrorism and for democracy," Secretary of State Colin Powell said at the meeting in Barbados. "There can be no doubt of our resolve."

The treaty is meant to prevent financing of terrorism, toughen border controls and strengthen cooperation among law enforcement agencies. It requires each country to create a financial intelligence unit and institute strict measures to detect cross-border movements of cash that could be used to fund terrorism. Signatories agreed to transfer detainees whose testimony is needed in anti-terrorism investigations and to deny asylum or refugee status to terrorism suspects. "Today, our states, individually and collectively, face new goals and new threats," said Panama's Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Aleman.

The four OAS nations that did not sign - Canada, Dominica, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago - need additional time to follow required procedures, OAS officials said. Foreign ministers and secretaries of state also discussed a possible OAS role in easing political tensions in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez was briefly ousted by a military rebellion in April, and in Haiti, where an impasse over new elections is holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.***