Lisbon - Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates on Wednesday described US

San Salvador - Eight presidents left the Iberian American Summit in San Salvador before it closed Friday, in a mass escape that made the gathering's last day lacklustre.

Between midday Thursday and early Friday, the leaders of Brazil, Nicaragua, Argentina, Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic left the Salvadorian capital. The presidents of Venezuela, Cuba and Uruguay directly skipped the summit.

San Salvador, El Salvador

San Salvador, El Salvador - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Thursday joined calls for a "new financial world order" with stronger mechanisms for control and transparency.

At the Iberian American Summit in San Salvador, the centre-left Rodriguez Zapatero criticized the "myth of deregulation" which according to him put speculation and greed, and the unbounded craving for greater benefits, above the productive economy.

Lisbon - The Portuguese parliament Friday rejected a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage with an overwhelming majority, with the governing Socialists arguing that the time was not ripe.

The draft legislation had been tabled by the Greens and the Left Bloc.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates' Socialists and the opposition conservative parties voted against.

The Socialists were against discrimination, but the question of gay marriage should not be allowed to split Portuguese society, Socialist legislator Jorge Strech said.