SANTO DOMINGO.- President Leonel Fernandez will meet near noon today with Venezuela Foreign Relations minister Nicolas Maduro, in what may be the last effort to spur a dialogue and ease relations between presidents Hugo Chavez and Alvaro Uribe.

Despite Fernandez’s optimism his efforts may not lead to results as in eve of his visit to Santo Domingo Maduo had stated that Caracas sees a return of normal relations with Bogotá when that Colombia chooses a new president this year.

"It’s necessary to wait for the outcome of Colombia’s presidential elections and await the arrival of a new Head of State to advance. Everything which can be done today would have to focus in creating conditions for that moment." the Venezuelan official said in Caracas quoted by the agency EFE.

The encounter

Fernandez’s meeting with Maduro will be held in the National Palace, to  inform Venezuela’s authorities of the steps taken during Fernandez’s official visit with Uribe, a mission assigned in the February 22  Rio Group Summit in Cancún, Mexico.

Relations between the neighboring countries deteriorated in August, when Colombia signed a military pact with the United States, prompting Chavez to freeze binational trade.