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At least 30 people have died in the Peruvian Amazon during clashes between police and indigenous groups protesting against oil and gas exploration on ancestral lands.

Violence erupted when police attempted to clear a road blocked by thousands of indigenous Peruvians protesting against a law they say makes it easier for foreign firms to exploit their lands.

Protest leaders said police opened fire from helicopters with bullets andtear gas, while police said protesters attacked officers with firearms.

The FTA with the United States was negotiated beginning in May of 2004 under the government of Alejandro Toledo (2000-2005). The treaty was slated to replace the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act signed in 2002 and in effect until December of 2006. The FTA eliminated obstacles to trade and facilitated access to goods and services and investment flows. Modeled on the North American free Trade Agreement, it also includes a broad range of issues linked to intellectual property, public contracting and services, and dispute resolution.5

Venezuela has withdrawn its ambassador to Lima in response to Peru's decision to grant political asylum to an opponent of President Hugo Chavez.

The Venezuelan foreign ministry said Peru's decision to grant Manuel Rosales asylum constituted a "mockery of international law". Mr Rosales ran against Mr Chavez in Venezuela's 2006 presidential election. He faces corruption charges which he says are baseless and went into hiding when the charges were filed last month.

Earlier, Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde announced that asylum had been granted to Mr Rosales, who arrived in Lima a week ago.

The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five - indicating human-to-human transmission in at least two countries. It is a "strong signal that a pandemic is imminent", the WHO says.

In Mexico, at the epicentre of the outbreak, people have been urged to stay at home over the next five days. There are numerous cases elsewhere - the highest number outside Mexico in the US - and Europeans have been told it is certain there will be deaths.

New cases were confirmed in Switzerland, Costa Rica and Peru European health ministers were set to meet for emergency talks to co-ordinate national efforts to contain the spread of the virus Ghana has become the latest country to ban pork imports as a precaution against swine flu, though no cases have been found in the West African country.