WASHINGTON (AP) - The countries with the largest economies in North and South America - the United States and Brazil - are locked in a trade dispute that threatens one of President Bush's top economic goals: creation of the world's largest free trade area spanning the Western Hemisphere.

Because of the wide differences there is concern that a meeting of trade ministers scheduled for the week of Nov. 17 in Miami could end as badly as the September meetings of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico. Those talks on a global trade deal collapsed after negotiators were unable to narrow the wide gap between rich and poor countries.

Hoping to break the impasse, the United States on Friday and today held hastily arranged discussions with trade ministers from 16 of the 34 countries involved in the effort to craft a Free Trade Area of the Americas.