LA PAZ, Dec. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Evo Morales, the left-wing presidential candidate that is leading Bolivia's elections, called on the United States president George W Bush to respect "the sovereign will of Bolivia's people", local media reported on Sunday.

    "Let us fight poverty with our natural resources, and that means nationalizing all our resources, not just gas," Morales, who leads the Socialist Movement, said at a press conference, held after he voted in a small village ballot in Villa Sep. 14, in El Chapare, central Bolivia.

    A voting pool of 3.6 million Bolivians will elect a president, vice-president, 130 deputies, 27 senators and nine regional governors.

    Morales, the favorite in recent opinion polls with a score of 34.2 percent, said if Washington does respect human life and considers itself democratic that it would "pull its troops out of Iraq and remove all military bases in Latin America" because this is not wartime.

    He also said that he had a lot of respect for Cuban president Fidel Castro and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, saying "we are friends and brothers" in the fight for self rule.

    After the press conference Morales flew to La Paz where he willmeet his candidate for the head of the police Manuel Morales Davila. Enditem