The new anti-US axis....

A trinity of shame.

Bolivia's president-elect has boosted his reputation as an anti-US firebrand by making Cuba and Venezuela his first foreign stops since his landslide victory at the polls.

Evo Morales thus joined Fidel Castro and President Hugo Chavez in a trinity of unashamedly Left-wing South American leaders united in hostility to Washington.

"We join the mission of Fidel in Cuba and Hugo in Venezuela in answering the needs of the majority," said Mr Morales during his visit to Venezuela.

"This millennium is for the people, not the empire," he said, adding that Bolivia would join Latin America's "anti-imperialist and anti neo-liberal" bloc.

Mr Chavez, who never lets slip an opportunity to attack the Bush administration, embraced Mr Morales and said: "The axis of evil is Washington and its allies, who threaten, who kill. We are forming the axis of good."