Uruguay's press has hailed the success of US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's visit to the region, while leading newspapers in Brazil and Argentina take a more cynical view.

Two of Uruguay's leading dailies give prominence to Mr O'Neill's praise for the economic management of President Jorge Batlle's government.

"Batlle euphoric with O'Neill", screams a headline in La Republica.

Confidence in the Uruguayan way

El Pais

The daily says the Uruguayan leader received a phone call from President George W Bush to "celebrate" the emergency loan granted by Washington to alleviate the country's banking crisis.

'Fantastic!'

"We are fantastic!" La Republica quotes Mr Batlle as telling the visitor in English after he praised Montevideo for following the advice of the IMF and World Bank.

"Confidence in the Uruguayan way," proudly proclaims a banner headline in the major circulation El Pais.

Such euphoria has failed to enthuse neighbouring Argentina, where the press evinces a weary resignation towards the visit.

Mr O'Neill is a hard man who doesn't mince his words

La Nacion

For La Nacion, Mr O'Neill is "a hard man who doesn't mince his words".

"He has been especially tough on Argentina," it says.

When the then economy minister tried to explain convertibility to him, he was curtly told "not to try and explain to me what I am unable to understand", La Nacion says.

Blinkered

Mr O'Neill tends to "know little about the world beyond the United States", it adds. His comments about aid packages ending up in Swiss bank accounts indicate his belief that "there is too much corruption here".

Writing in La Nacion, Argentine economist and former education minister Juan Llach blames the region's economic crises on the failure of new US and IMF policies for emerging countries introduced by the Bush administration.

He describes them as "more lightweight, almost frivolous, and certainly more short-lived" than the previous policies.

O'Neill gambled that Argentina would not spread its contagion

Daniel Naszewski in El Cronista

"The magnitude of the damage caused by this doctrine and its failure is enormous," he adds. Also "remarks by Paul O'Neill and other US officials have by no means had an innocuous effect on the terrible progress of the Argentine crisis".

"Millions more Argentine citizens have sunk into poverty," Mr Llach argues, pointing to agricultural protectionism in the USA as keeping out Argentine produce.

A similar argument is propounded Daniel Naszewski in El Cronista, who says South America's problems are partly caused by the US economic slowdown.

"The treasury secretary also underestimated the regional situation. O'Neill gambled that Argentina would not spread its contagion."

Another mistake was putting too much pressure on Argentina, forcing the political situation in the region "to turn against the United States", Mr Naszewski adds.

'High cost' In Brazil, some sectors of the press take heart from the emergency loan granted to Uruguay but are unsure whether it is too little too late.

The influential conservative daily O Estado de Sao Paulo expresses the hope Washington has at last realised the crisis is not restricted to Argentina.

Bush's gesture reveals that the United States is worried about South America's financial crisis

Correio Braziliense

"The cost of a financial disaster in Brazil would be very high, with repercussions throughout Latin America."

"There is no doubt that the ill will shown by the US toward Argentina can be translated, to a great extent, as the US wanting to give the world a lesson."

Top circulation daily Folha de Sao Paulo welcomes the "change in Washington's behaviour towards indebted countries".

The pro-government Correio Braziliense says: "Bush's gesture reveals that the United States is worried about South America's financial crisis. The fact it extended a hand to Uruguay cannot be interpreted solely as a gesture of goodwill."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.