Latin American bloc says Cuba should attend summit

HAVANA - Latin American countries meeting on Wednesday in Havana demanded that Cuba be invited to the upcoming Summit of the Americas but stopped short of threatening a boycott if the Caribbean nation is excluded.

Representatives of the bloc known as the Bolivarian Alliance, or ALBA, decided to hold off on any decision while awaiting word from summit host nation Colombia, which has not said what it will do.

"We respectfully ask the brother government of Colombia to invite Cuba. There is no reason not to," said Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino of Ecuador, whose President Rafael Correa first proposed the boycott during an ALBA meeting in early February.