(Adds vice president quote, changes dateline to La Paz) By Simon Gardner LA PAZ, Bolivia, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Bolivia's government and rightist rivals sought to defuse a deep political crisis on Sunday after deadly protests prompted martial law in a restive northern province where more than a dozen people were killed. Mario Cossio, governor of natural gas-rich Tarija province, traveled to La Paz for a second round of talks with the government, which President Evo Morales planned to attend. Morales will then travel to Chile for a summit that South American presidents will hold on Monday to try to broker a resolution to the crisis. Bolivia, an unstable country with large natural gas reserves at the heart of South America, has been rocked in the past week as supporters of rightist opposition governors stepped up rejection of Morales' plans for deep socialist reforms. Morales, among a new generation of leftist leaders in Latin America allied with anti-Washington President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, has said his opponents want to oust him. Opposition protest leader and wealthy pro-autonomy businessman Branko Marinkovic said his followers would end roadblocks that have crippled eastern Santa Cruz province to help foster negotiation. "We're going to be working on a document and if we reach an agreement the president will present it," Vice President Alvaro Garcia told reporters before talks started with Cossio. At the top of the agenda for talks is the new constitution that Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader, is trying to push through to formalize rights for the country's Indian majority and institute land reforms that the governors oppose. Bolivia's political polarization deepened after a recall vote in August that Morales won in a landslide but that also strongly endorsed governors, who want more autonomy to run their provinces. MORE BODIES? Defense Minister Walker San Miguel said the army was patrolling the small city of Cobija, capital of sparsely populated Pando province in the Amazon near Brazil, two days after Morales declared martial law in the area. Local radio said 100 residents defied martial law by marching peacefully with white flags. A Reuters witness said shops were closed on Sunday and streets were quiet. Health Minister Ramiro Tapia said from Cobija he had a list of 14 confirmed dead, killed in what the government says was an ambush by opposition groups against pro-Morales peasant farmers. He also said 50 people were still missing. Two others were killed in a separate clash. One government official put the death toll from days of clashes at around 30 and said he feared more bodies would be found after a fight in Pando between pro- and anti-Morales groups on Thursday. Morales accused backers of Pando's opposition governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, of ordering a massacre and the government has vowed to arrest him. The government says it will seek a 30-year jail term. Fernandez denied the charge. "This is a clear sign that the government is not interested in anyone coming here who does not agree with their plans," Fernandez told local television. He said he was at home and had made the rounds of Cobija unimpeded in the morning. The violence during the week forced a temporary cut in exports of natural gas to Argentina and Brazil, Bolivia's main source of revenue. U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg was due to leave the country on Sunday after Morales banished him and accused him of conspiring with the opposition. "President Morales' decision to reduce the level of our bilateral relations was a grave error which could have serious consequences," Goldberg said in a parting shot. (Additional reporting by Eduardo Garcia and Carlos Quiroga in La Paz and Raymond Colitt in Santa Cruz; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and John O'Callaghan)
Residents wave white flags during a march for peace in the northern city of Cobija, capital of Pando province still under martial law as declared by the government of President Evo ...
