MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Strong US support for Duhalde

The number three man in the US State Department, Marc Grossman met this week with Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde to express Washington's support to the current Argentine government.

"He was very precise in so far his special trip to Buenos Aires was to express US president George Bush backing to Argentina", said Argentine Ambassador in the United States Diego Guelar.

Argentina that is suffering a four years recession and endured several months of political turmoil and street rioting is desperately trying to recover international credit and present itself again as a reliable country to investors.

Mr. Grossman met with president Duhalde in Casa Rosada, "where they analyzed the current political and economic situation in South America, including Colombia and Venezuela", Mr. Guelar reported to the press.

However Ambassador Guelar avoided details of the talks, "it's not polite to talk about third countries, what was confirmed in the meeting is that Argentina is a strong ally and good friend of the United States".

Mr. Grossman also had a meeting scheduled with Argentina's Defence Secretary Horacio Jaunarena but no details were revealed.