CARTAGENA, Colombia, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama stressed on Saturday the "great promise" for business growth in the Americas, seeking to play up the economic heft of the region he has paid little attention to in his first three years in office.
In remarks prepared for a meeting of corporate chief executives in Cartagena, Colombia, where he is attending the 33-nation Summit of the Americas, Obama described U.S.-Latin American ties as "one of the world's most dynamic trade relationships"
"With nearly a billion citizens - nearly a billion consumers - among us, there's so much more we can do together," according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.
"For the Americas, this is a moment of great promise. And I believe if we seize the opportunities before us, we'll continue to be each other's economic partners of choice," he was set to tell the gathering of CEOs on Saturday morning, which precedes the formal start of the regional leaders' summit.
Obama, who is running for re-election in November, is under pressure in Colombia to show he is committed to engaging with Latin America and addressing regional issues like drug trafficking and violence.
His critics - including many pivotal Hispanic voters in the United States - have accused him of largely neglecting Washington's neighbors to concentrate on crises in the Middle East and Afghanistan and an effort to boost U.S. trade ties with fast-growing Asia.
On his way to Colombia on Friday, Obama gave a speech at a shipping port in Tampa, Florida, on the ways U.S. businesses and workers can benefit from increased trade with Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.
Florida, a state with a large Hispanic population, is expected to be an electoral battleground on Nov. 6 and Latino voters could also make or break Obama's chances in swing states like Nevada, Colorado and Virginia.
Polls show the president well ahead of Mitt Romney - the presumed Republican nominee for the White House race - among Latino voters despite concerns about his lack of attention to Latin American issues and disappointment about his failure to produce the broad immigration reform he promised in 2008. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis and Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric Beech)