The Mezo-American nations agreed on Sunday to leave the decision to investors on the site of the region's biggest proposed refinery, which would probably be in either Guatemala or Panama.

According to reports reaching here, the agreement was part of a 35-page statement published Sunday after a three-day meeting of the Mezo-American Energy Integration Program (PIEM), which ended on Saturday in La Romana, close to Dominican capital Santo Domingo.

Presidents and foreign ministers of the PIEM nations -- Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic -- agreed to begin a bidding for the planned 6 billion U.S. dollar refinery, which Guatemala, Honduras and Panama had offered to host.

The PIEM, which first met in December last year, aims to complete four tasks: to build a massive oil refinery in a Central American nation, to create a "spine" of electricity links between the PIEM nations, to harmonize energy regulation across the region and to promote the use of sustainable and renewable energy.

The PIEM also agreed at the summit to complete the electricity connection between Mexico and Guatemala by the end of 2007, and to complete studies of the Panama-Colombia power link.

The statement said that the price of petrol and oil derivatives would have a decisive impact on the region's development, and the PIEM would substantially boost the region's life quality and economic integration.

Mexico's Energy Minister Fernando Canales, whose country will supply 230,000 barrels of crude oil daily to the refinery, estimated earlier such a plant would supply gasoline to Central America at a cost eight U.S. dollars cheaper than that on the international market.

Elsewhere, El Salvadorean President Elias Antonio Saca said on Sunday that the results of the meeting were satisfactory and the refinery would help ease the petroleum crisis in the region.

Source: Xinhua