Several patients still on the Comfort watched from their hospital beds as Gates and Suriname Defense Minister Ivan Fernald toured the ship's facilities, 15 miles off the coast. "The Suriname people are very grateful," Fernald said.

He and Gates toured the nearly 900-foot-long ship, with its surgery and examination equipment, 20-bed intensive care unit, four operating rooms and 50-bed receiving area, on the eve of its return voyage to Baltimore starting Sunday.

"You've made a huge impact every place you've gone," Gates said. He told the crew they have "helped an awful lot of people in a lot of different ways, and created a lot of goodwill for our country."

The visit underscored a theme of increased cooperation between the U.S. and its southern neighbors that Gates carried through his five-day visit to the region.

"One of the significant problems I've been talking about on my trip is the challenge of transnational threats to all of our countries, whether it is narcotics trafficking, other criminal behavior or terrorists," he said.

But he said he went beyond that to discuss opportunities for humanitarian cooperation in his meetings with national and defense leaders from El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Suriname.

He did not mention the possibility that the range of U.S. aid, including helicopters, weapons, inoculations and dental surgery, can also bolster ties with nations that are being wooed by U.S. antagonists such as Venezuela and Cuba.

Asked whether the Comfort's tour was part of an effort to counter that influence - including that of Venezuela's leftist leader Hugo Chavez - Gates said no.

"The mission of the Comfort was not against anyone, it was directed for and toward the people of South and Central America," he said.

One of the most controversial regional issues, the effort to find an alternative air base for U.S. drug surveillance missions, did not come up during the meetings, the Pentagon chief said.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said in August his country won't extend the agreement that lets the U.S. military use the Manta air base for surveillance flights. A senior defense official said earlier this week that Colombia and Peru have agreed to discuss options for moving the flights to their countries. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are preliminary and no negotiations are taking place.

However, Suriname's president, Ronald Venetiaan, said Saturday that Gates proposed building a facility in Suriname to test the performance of U.S. military vehicles in dense jungle. "We have those conditions here and we can accommodate them," Venetiaan said.

Gates said his Latin America tour focused on building partnerships and listening to a wide variety of requests for equipment, aid and training opportunities from each of the nations. Emphasis was placed on counter-narcotics assistance, as countries such as Peru sought helicopters, boats and weapons to help battle heavy coca production and drug-trafficking

During the Comfort's mission, doctors, dentists, surgeons and nurses performed more than 1,100 surgeries in the course of providing treatments or services to almost 380,000 people. In Suriname alone, the staff saw almost 2,500 patients.

Capt. Bob Kapcio said staff on his ship performed the most medical treatments in Ecuador - 51,000. There, the ship was able to dock rather than ferry patients from shore by helicopter or boat. In countries such as Suriname, patients had to be transported because coral reefs prevented the ship from docking.

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