By Carlos Alberto Quiroga

TRINIDAD, Bolivia, March 5 (Reuters) - The worst flooding in a quarter century in Bolivia's Amazon plain has begun to recede but aid efforts are being hampered by political infighting between President Evo Morales and the region's governor.

Water surrounding Trinidad, the capital of the Beni district, has dropped at least four-tenths of an inch (one centimeter) , regional emergency chief Jose Carlos Dellien said over the weekend, ending fears the entire city would be inundated if water came over the dike surrounding it.

But 40 percent of Beni, which was the hardest hit region in Bolivia, is still under water and food and other aid must be delivered to stranded ranches.

"The worst is over and now the hard part begins," Dellien said.

The government response to the flooding has exposed differences between Morales, a leftist, and the rightist regional government in Beni.

Forty-two people have died in Bolivia and 400,000 people were affected by flooding, hail storms and other extreme weather that began two months ago and is linked to the "El Nino" climate phenomenon.

The flooding forced the government to cut its economic growth estimate for the year to 6 percent from 7 percent, as roads, homes, bridges and crops have been destroyed and millions of dollars worth of cattle have perished.

Beni Governor Ernesto Suarez says losses in his region total $115 million.

Morales has visited Beni twice without greeting local authorities, going straight to poor, mostly indigenous, communities totally underwater on the outskirts of Trinidad.

Antonio Molpeceres, chief of the United Nations mission in Bolivia, flew over Beni on the weekend, viewing a flooded area twice the size of Switzerland, and promised urgent and coordinated international aid for rebuilding.

Suarez told Molpeceres his office has not coordinated with Morales' government to distribute aid.

POWER STRUGGLE

Suarez is part of a new generation of regional leaders who were elected for the first time in 2005. Previously, the president appointed regional governors. Most of the governors elected in 2005 belong to opposition parties and want more autonomy for their provinces.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Suarez admitted the power struggle between his government and the Morales administration has hurt relief efforts in the Beni region.

He said Morales took too long to recognize Beni as a disaster zone because the declaration could put his controversial plan to redistribute land to poor peasants on hold.

Morales' land reform plan, which calls for the redistribution of almost a fifth of Bolivia's territory, is opposed by Beni's cattle ranchers and large land owners in the eastern Santa Cruz district.

The local government donated aid from Spain in sacks that said "Beni Department," while the central government coordinated other deliveries with logistics aid from Argentina and Venezuela, which donated helicopters to the effort.

"They shouldn't be fighting over who looks like they are giving the aid," said Teresa Arteaga, one of thousands of mothers with children taking refuge in Trinidad's schools.

"In the end all the aid doesn't get through and we, the poorest people, are the ones who are affected."

(Additional reporting by Eduardo Garcia)

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