Quito - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Monday for peace in South America at a time when tensions are rife over Colombia's plans to allow the United States use of seven military bases in its territory.

"The more peace we have, the more we will be able to give our peoples what they need," Lula said in Quito.

He appeared to take distance from more radical South American leaders, particularly Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Earlier, Chavez had claimed that "war winds are starting to blow" in the region.

"Venezuela feels threatened, I don't know if Ecuador does, but that country was bombed recently," Chavez said at the summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was not in attendance. His country has not had diplomatic ties with host Ecuador for over a year, following a cross-border Colombian Army raid that targeted a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Ecuadorian soil.

Bogota is considering granting the US military increased access to bases within Colombia. The official reason is the fight against drug trafficking, which fuels the activities of leftist Colombian rebels who have been fighting the state for more than 40 years.

Most South American countries, including Brazil and Argentina, have expressed their displeasure with the plan. However, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner also distanced herself from Chavez's positions Monday in Quito.

Fernandez de Kirchner demanded that "shrillness" be avoided in this issue and that "problems be approached in an intelligent fashion."

"An unprecedented and unacceptable state of belligerence is being created in the region," she complained.

Fernandez de Kirchner asked that a new gathering of Unasur "necessarily" include Uribe, and offered to host such a meeting in Buenos Aires.

"We have to reach an agreement about the future of Unasur, since if there is no sincerity and trust among its members it will not be an institution for integration but a friends' club surrounded by enemies," Lula said in response to Chavez's words.

At this summit, Ecuador took over the rotating presidency of Unasur, an organization that was formally set up in May 2008 and brings together the 12 countries in South America.(dpa)