WASHINGTON.- Presidents Leonel Fernandez and Barack Obama met in the White House Monday afternoon and in a press briefing afterward revealed that they focused their talk on the region’s drug trafficking and the post quake assistance for Haiti.

Obama thanked Fernandez for leading the global effort to help Haiti’s quake victims, as the first teams of rescuers and official aid to reach the devastated capital. “I want to express our appreciation for Dominican Republic’s role in the crisis in Haiti. I think that his country’s role and Fernandez’s role in particular in helping to facilitate a rapid response was extremely important to save lives.”

The US leader said Americans would like to see that help to Haiti’s victims continue and hailed his Dominican par’s efforts in other regional crises. “We wish to see this continue, to help people of Haiti. That’s one example of the leadership role Fernandez has played. We also saw that in the Honduras crisis, as it unfolded with Fernandez leading the effort.”

Obama said they also discussed the “critical” issue of drug trafficking and crime and their potential to destabilize the region. “We have seen the cooperation thought the Caribbean basin initiative, president Fernandez and I have discussed how we can cooperate, from the supply side and from the demand side.”

“We here in the United States have an important obligation with the flow of drugs, weapons, cash, so the problem involves all of us. We also talked about working together on how to expand trade and business opportunities,” he said, and noted clean energy’s importance, citing Brazil’s use of ethanol from sugar case. “I think those opportunities also exist in the Dominican Republic.”

He added that he discussed with Fernandez how the two countries can work closer together and thanked Dominicans for their contributions to the U.S. “My message to the people of the Dominican Republic: Thank you for your friendship. Americans deeply appreciate the contribution by Dominicans expressed in the deep bonds of friendship. We also know that Dominicans make pretty good baseball players.”

Fernandez speaking in perfect English thanked his host and said they discussed mutual interests such as bilateral and regional issues. “We appreciate that despite your busy agenda with international issues, you take time out to discuss this regional problems of drug trafficking and international crimes and the violence these generate. I commend you for the CBI (Caribbean Basin) initiative; it’s only though our joint efforts that we can defeat this epidemic.”

As to clean energy Fernandez said his administration is working on wind energy and ethanol.

He said despite that the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. has been in effect for more than five yeas, “we‘ve yet to take full advantage of it due to the global crisis.|

CNN airs, comments the press briefing

In an unusual broadcast the news network CNN covered the entire 20-minute long press briefing by Obama and Fernandez, and the anchorman Rick Sanchez called the Dominican leader a “superstar” in his country, winning three terms and noting his roots in the Upper Manhattan’s Washington Heights district.