La Paz - The left-wing populist government of Bolivia and the country's opposition were optimistic ahead of a meeting of South American presidents Monday in Santiago to discuss the Bolivian crisis.

The opposition governor of the province of Tarija, Mario Cossio, said in the early hours of Monday that the two sides had almost agreed on the draft of a joint statement.

Cossio - representing the Democratic National Council (Conalde) that brings the opposition together - met with a government delegation headed by Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera for eight hours in La Paz.

La Paz - Bolivia's President Evo Morales started talks with the opposition Sunday after days of violent clashes between government supporters and protestors in the country's energy-rich eastern provinces.

At the same time, Morales ordered the arrest of the governor of Pando region, Leopoldo Fernandez, a leading opposition member, saying he must be put away for 30 years.

La Paz - The government of Bolivian President Evo Morales on Sunday ordered the arrest of Leopoldo Fernandez, the influential opposition governor of Pando province, as a regional insurrection in the Amazonian province continued.

Fernandez has been charged with defying government-ordered martial law, said Juan Ramon Quintana, a minister in the office of the president.

In addition, the government accuses Fernandez of responsibility in a "massacre" of aboriginal farmers who were killed on their way to a demonstration.

The Bolivian government confirmed Sunday at least 16 deaths from a regional insurrection in Pando.

La Paz - The Bolivian government confirmed Sunday at least 16 deaths from a regional insurrection in the Amazonian province of Pando as the army attempts to impose martial law.

A 17-year-old soldier was killed at the Cobija city airport by presumed assassins hired by the prefecture in rebellion against the government of President Evo Morales.

Right-wing opposition groups in the resource-rich areas of the country began rising up against the Morales administration's policies to redistribute wealth late last week.

Buenos Aires/La Paz - These are difficult times for US diplomacy in South America. Bolivia and Venezuela expelled the US ambassadors from their countries, in aggressive and often abusive, televised announcements by their presidents.

It started with Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president and an ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. In a dramatic television appearance Wednesday he said: "Without fear of the empire, I declare today to the Bolivian people that Mr Goldberg, the ambassador of the United States, is persona non grata."

La Paz - The Bolivian government declared a state of siege Friday in the Amazonian province of Pando after days of violent clashes that have left 14 people dead.

Bolivian Defence Minister Walker San Miguel said the move - which forbid civilians from carrying arms, restricts the freedom of assembly and increases the powers of the military and the police - was adopted in an effort to contain a wave of violence in the area that broke out Thursday.