Though talks were delayed by an hour Friday because of protestor activity, the two-day Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City, Canada, concluded Sunday with leaders of 34 nations calling for a free trade zone across the Western Hemisphere by 2005.

Nearly all of the leaders who met supported a framework for a regional trade pact in which membership would be limited to democratic states, currently excluding communist-ruled Cuba. In addition to creating trade barriers across the Americas from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn, an area that is home to 800 million people, leaders also discussed improvement of education, health care, and participation in democratic institutions.

“Today we begin a new era in hemispheric cooperation,” Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said in closing the conference Sunday. “Such common purpose is a precious asset -- an asset which we must use from this day forward to fulfill the hopes and dreams of the people of the Americas.”

Friday night’s opening was delayed an hour after Canadian riot police had resorted to using tear gas and rubber bullets to keep anti-globalism protesters away. Despite their efforts, demonstrators took over several streets and tore down parts of a concrete and chain-link fence which had been erected by police as a security measure.

According to an estimate by CNN, 30,000 protesters rallied in Quebec City to voice their opposition of the trade pact, most critiques arguing that the expense of free trade is the treatment of workers, and, specifically, the quality of their work environment.

“Free trade means open markets, which means power goes to the powerful and not to the people,” protester Michael Sacco told The Associated Press. The 25-year-old student from Toronto wore a Canadian flag like a cape.

As of Sunday morning, 403 protestors had been arrested since the summit began Friday, according to Constable Elaine Lavergne of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Many arrests came after protesters set fires and shattered windows outside the security perimeter around the summit site. Lavergne also said that 46 police officers had been injured by Saturday night, two seriously, and that 45 protesters had been injured.

Riot police responded to the destruction of the safety fence by standing shoulder-to-shoulder to form a human fence and protestors retaliated by throwing rocks, bottles, and parts of the felled fence at the officers. At this point the tear gas and rubber bullets were unleashed.

However, not all interactions between demonstrators and police were so violent. CNN reported that one young woman walked along a police line offering a large flower to officers. Incidentally, none accepted.

Kevin Danaher, another non-violent protester who was affiliated with Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights group, called the clashes “unfortunate.”

“People start talking about the pyrotechnics and not what's going on,” he said of the globalization.

Regarding protestor injuries, Agent Gilles Mitchell, also with the Quebec Provincial Police, said some were affected during the afternoon by exposure to the tear gas. Though he did not know how many people were injured, he said the reported injuries were all minor.

Police described their response as based on protesters' actions.

“We believe in a measured approach in terms of how police intervene in these types of situations,” said Sgt. Mike Gaudet of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Saturday. “We have full intentions of allowing the democratic right of people to demonstrate, but if personal behavior becomes violent, the police will respond according to how the crowd behaves.”

As early as Wednesday, Canadian police had rounded up seven people who allegedly planned to disrupt the summit with smoke bombs, grenades, and other things that police called “frightening equipment.”

In preparation, authorities brought in 6,000 police officers from across Canada. They said there were 4,000 to 5,000 protesters in the city Friday and anticipated as many as 25,000 to 30,000 could arrive by Saturday.

Hoping to avoid the wide-spread anger and violence of Seattle’s 1999 trade meeting and the one earlier this year in Washington, participants in the summit attempted recognition of the protestor’s concerns through an invitation of representatives of labor, human rights, and environmental organizations to meet with trade ministers. The voices of such representatives had been excluded from the previous meetings. Leaders remained unwilling to commit specific environmental and labor protections in writing though.

Leaders claimed that any undemocratic change of government would present an obstacle to joining the free trade zone and called democracy “fundamental to the advancement of all our objectives.”

Hesitation was not only on the part of demonstrators. Even Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that it was unreasonable to expect all countries to ratify a completed pact by 2005, he said in an interview with CNN. Other countries are not willing to make concessions until the United States, the hemisphere’s largest economy, grants President George W. Bush the kind of broad negotiating authority he wants. This authority would give him the power to negotiate trade agreements without amendments by legislators, by the end of the year. Bush assured those regional leaders that he would push U.S. Congress to

give him that authority.

Bush has called the proposed Free Trade Area of the America’s a “logical extension” of the North American Free Trade Agreement, put into effect in 1994.

“It’s a positive example for the doubters to look at, for the skeptics to see that wealth can be spread throughout the hemisphere,” Bush said.