Estoril, Portugal - Spain will "neither recognize nor ignore" Sunday's elections in Honduras, which were dividing Ibero-American countries Monday at a summit in Portugal, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said. Election winner Porfirio Lobo will play a role in the dialogue between ousted president Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government, Moratinos said in Estoril, where 22 Ibero-American countries were meeting.
The goal was to find a solution to the crisis created by the coup that toppled Zelaya on June 28, Moratinos said.
Spain also called for a "wide national agreement" in the Central American country to end the crisis.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe meanwhile announced that his country would recognize the election result.
The elections had been "democratic," with a high turnout and without fraud, Uribe told Colombian media.
"We trust the new government will step up all efforts to definitively overcome the difficult situation" in Honduras, he said.
Most of the Latin American countries initially said they would not recognize the elections staged by the de facto government. But some, including Costa Rica, Peru and Panama, see the elections as valid, as does the United States.
Ibero-American Deputy General Secretary Maria Elisa Berenguer said the summit would approve a communique condemning the June 28 coup.
Zelaya returned from exile in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, from where he called for an election boycott.
Other conflicts that were expected to be discussed at the summit included the row between Venezuela and Colombia over the US' use of military bases in Colombia.
The absence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was expected to reduce bickering between neighbours Colombia and Venezuela at the summit but also to lessen chances of mediating in their diplomatic row.
Chavez has called on Venezuelans to prepare for a war against what he sees as a US-Colombian plot to promote "Yankee imperialism," after Bogota authorized Washington to use seven military bases.
Chavez blamed his failure to attend the summit on having "a lot of work, a lot of trips" on his agenda.
Latin America's leftist regimes had a lowered profile at the summit with further absences of Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Raul Castro of Cuba.
The official motto of the summit was "Innovation and Knowledge," as it prepared to discuss ways to promote new technologies in Latin America.
Activists of the environmental group Greenpeace meanwhile climbed Lisbon's Belen Tower, displaying banners calling on the summit to discuss climate change ahead of the upcoming United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen.
