MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Resigned Minister Welcomed ex-President Menem

The Cabinet Minister forced to resign, causing a major political row in Britain, Peter Mandelson, played a major part in welcoming former Argentine President Carlos Menem on his visit to the United Kingdom in October 1998 and in the negotiations to boost Anglo-Argentine trade and investment links, on which the two countries signed an agreement.

Peter Mandelson, then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, made a keynote speech welcoming Mr Menem at a British Argentine Business Conference, enthusiastically embracing Argentina as "a partner for the new Millennium". Mr Mandelson praised Carlos Menem for what he called his "impressive rebuilding" of Argentina's economy, describing the country as a "strong pillar of a very important regional trading group, Mercosur".

Mr Mandleson said both Britain and Argentina shared a commitment to open markets and further trade liberalisation, pointing out that Britain had become Argentina's number one market for its "excellent wine". He emphasised Britain's growing investment in Argentina and announced a series of trade missions, as well as his own visit to Argentina and Brazil a few weeks later.

Mr Mandelson, aged 47, was forced to resign after only six months as Trade and Industry Minister for telling a lie about a home loan he received from another Minister, who also resigned. Brought back into the Cabinet in 1999 as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Mandelson has now been forced to resign a second time for lying about his actions related to a passport application for British citizenship by a rich Indian business tycoon, Srichand Hinduja, who is implicated in bribery and corruption allegations in India over the purchase of Swedish bofors guns for the Indian army.

Two Ministers with Brazilian Partners

The Mandelson story has dominated the newspapers for several days, many of them highlighting his homosexual relationship with his Brazilian partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, aged 28, a foreign languages student, who lived with him in his official Northern Ireland residence, Hillsborough Castle. Reinaldo had previously been the lover of Howell James, a former public relations adviser to both the BBC and to the previous Conservative Prime Minister, John Major, and briefly to Mr Hinduja and his brothers during the recent turmoil.

The newspapers have also reported on the remarkable coincidence that the woman partner of the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, is also Brazilian, 53-year-old former actress Carine Adler. One newspaper carried the headline: "As One Brazilian