07:10 Nov 25, 1996 EST

BUENOS AIRES
(Reuters) -

The South Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon launched a new Spanish-language newspaper for the whole of Latin America this weekend, with the backing of guest George Bush who praised Moon's respect for editorial independence. The former U.S. president, guest speaker at a banquet Saturday to launch Moon's new publication ``Tiempos del Politics Mundo'' (Times of the World), was full of praise for the controversial evangelist's best-known newspaper, the Washington Times, and referred to Moon as ``the man with the vision.'' Bush then travelled with Moon to neighboring Uruguay Sunday to help him inaugurate a seminary in the capital Montevideo to train 4,200 young Japanese women to spread the word of his Church of Unification across Latin America.

Moon already owns a major newspaper, bank and hotel in Uruguay and is buying up land in the Argentine province of Corrientes, where he plans to construct what his followers call ``ideal cities''.

``I want to salute Reverend Moon who is the founder of the Washington Times and of the new paper here,'' said Bush, who was reported by the Washington Post to have been paid $100,000 for his Buenos Aires appearance.

``A lot of my friends in South America don't know about the Washington Times but it is an independent voice,'' said Bush. ''The editors of the Washington Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington DC.''

``I am convinced that Tiempos del Mundo is going to do the same thing,'' said Bush, who managed to avoid being photographed with the 76-year-old South Korean evangelist during his whole stay in Buenos Aires.

Bush was staying at Argentine President Carlos Menem's official Olivos residence, and there was a place reserved at the top table for Menem. But Menem, who met Moon secretly last year, snubbed him this time on the advice of foreign policy and religious policy aides.

Argentina's influential Catholic Church takes issue with Moon's portrayl of himself as an incarnation of God fulfilling the mission of Christ. Critics say he brainwashes the vulnerable into joining him and some countries, such as Germany, consider him a threat to public order and refuse him an entry visa.

In his speech at the Tiempos del Mundo launch, Moon made a bitter reference to the 11 months he spent in prison in the United States for tax evasion, saying he had ``overcome significant persecution'' in that country.

Before his speech titled ``In Search of the Origin of the Universe,'' Moon promised his new paper would ``provide the most edifying reports in every aspect...promoting harmony and reverting the tendency towards disbelief.''

The first edition showed a tendency to optimistic headlines, its cover showing an elated President Bill Clinton over the headline ``The North Moves Closer to the South.''

Its Texan editor, Larry Moffitt, told Reuters the newspaper would come out on Sundays at first ``but go daily very quickly'' via satellite transmissions to editorial centers in 10 countries, including Argentina.

``Within a year we hope to be in every country in the hemisphere,'' Moffitt said. His circulation goals are ambitious: ``There are 300 million Spanish speaking people in the hemisphere. That sounds like a good number.''

Meanwhile Moon was in full flow, asking his 700 guest such penetrating questions as ``why do sexual organs exist?'' and ''when you defecate, do you wear a gas mask?''