WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is starting a Spanish-language Web site designed to give 1.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses better access to information on government grants, trade and high tech issues.

"The Hispanic community has an ally in President Bush (news - web sites)," Commerce Secretary Don Evans said Friday.

It's a message Bush emphasized as a candidate for Texas governor and president, and one he hopes will win him support from the nation's fastest-growing ethnic minority as he heads toward a 2004 re-election campaign.

The number of U.S. Hispanics rose by 58 percent during the past decade to 35.3 million, according to census figures — just under the 35.4 million figure for black Americans, the nation's largest minority. As many as 1 million Hispanics will be registered to vote by 2004, when Bush runs for re-election.

The Web site is a sign of Bush's target within a national community that has traditionally leaned Democratic: Hispanic business owners. Hispanics, especially women, form the nation's fastest-growing group of business owners.

"I think it's a good first step, a symbolic step, in recognizing the importance of the Hispanic community," said George Herrera, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites), which was consulted on the new site's development.

Though Bush, who speaks some Spanish, has pleased Hispanic activists with his Cabinet and other appointments, even Herrera's group acknowledges that there's much ideological space to be bridged between Hispanic voters and the administration on such issues as raising the minimum wage and immigration reform for non-citizens who work in the United States.

Health care policy, too, is a prickly topic: Hispanics, just 11 percent of the U.S. population, account for 35 percent of those without health insurance.

Beyond the policy arena, Republicans have battled a perception problem.

Most recently, they worried that racially insensitive comments by Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., which led to his resignation as incoming Senate majority leader, would reinforce an image they had hoped to bury — that of a white-dominated party insensitive to concerns of minorities.

Chief among those concerned was Bush, who quickly condemned Lott's remarks.

"We have more dialogue with the administration" on policy issues, Herrera said. "But George Bush has demonstrated his commitment back to when he was governor of Texas. We can trust him."

With immigration and education reforms, Bush won nearly half of the Hispanic vote in his 1998 re-election campaign for Texas governor, a rare achievement for a Republican.

Still, Hispanics stuck mostly with Democrats two years later in the presidential race, with Al Gore (news - web sites) winning 62 percent of that vote and Bush receiving 35 percent, according to exit polls.

Source: Yahoo News