SEO: Does Google care about domain extensions? (.es , .co.uk… etc etc)?

For example, would a .es domain be better for google.es Or would a .co.uk domain be better for google.co.uk? if you have a .com domain, can you optimize it for google.es , google.co.uk or does google prefer domain name extensions from the same area? Also… would it matter where the site is hosted? Or does [...] http://bit.ly/m1mOfH