Bolivian president-elect in Spain for talks

Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales and Spain's Foreign Minister Angel Moratinos

Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales and Spain's Foreign Minister Angel Moratinos

Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales has arrived in Spain as part of an international tour ahead of his inauguration later this month.

Mr Morales, who described himself in December as "the United States' worst nightmare," is seeking aid for South America's poorest economy and plans also to discuss exploitation of Bolivia's natural gas reserves.

He is scheduled to meet with Spanish King Juan Carlos, a rare honour for a president-elect, and later with Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Madrid.

We are in a new era, we are in a new millennium, a millennium for the people, not for the empire
Evo Morales, Bolivia's President-elect

Mr Morales arrived in Spain this morning after visiting left-wing leader Hugo Chávez of Venezuela yesterday where the pair discussed energy and economic co-operation between their respective countries.

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"We are joining this anti-neoliberal, anti-imperialist fight," Morales said as he met Chavez and his ministers at the airport. "We are in a new era, we are in a new millennium, a millennium for the people, not for the empire," he said.

"This movement isn't just in Bolivia. With Fidel in Cuba and Hugo in Venezuela, we continue to add victories for left-wing parties," he added.

Mr Morales, who is the first Indian president of Bolivia to hold talks with a number of business leaders in Spain, including the head of the energy giant Repsol.

The Spanish-Argentine energy company has huge investments in Bolivia it does not want nationalised, as Morales has threatened.

The Bolivian leader-elect received 54% of the vote in December's presidential vote and has already visited Cuba as part of his tour. The rest of the tour takes in Spain, France, Brazil, China and South Africa before he takes office on January 22.

Agencies