MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner to visit Lula and Lagos.

Argentine presidential candidate Nestor Kirchner this week will be visiting Brazil and Chile to hold private meetings with the presidents of both countries. The trip is seen as an exercise of international relations for Mr. Kirchner, an area in which he is considered inexperienced compared to his rival and former president Carlos Menem.

Opinion polls published in Buenos Aires newspapers unanimously indicate that the governor of the province of Santa Cruz will beat Mr. Menem by an ample margin in the presidential run-off on May 18.

Mr. Kirchner will be travelling with Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna the man who is credited with having restored order and common sense to Argentine finances and who will also continue in his post in a future Kirchner administration.

In Brasilia Mr. Kirchner who has the full support from caretaker Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde will explain to Brazilian Foreign Affairs and Finance Ministers, Celso Amorim and Antonio Palocci his foreign policy and economic program, and will later meet President Lula.

"We're not solely interested in economic integration, but in the political unity of Latinamerica, starting with a strategic understanding with Brazil. An example of this was the recent human rights vote in the United Nations regarding Cuba", indicated one of Mr. Kirchner's closest advisors.

The fact that President Lula da Silva will receive Mr. Kirchner is interpreted as a strong message regarding Brazil's favoritism in the presidential run-off.

From Brasilia Mr. Kirchner will fly directly to Chile with a similar agenda, particularly emphasizing that a future Kirchner administration would push hard for Chile's full membership in Mercosur.

In Santiago Mr. Kirchner, whose mother is Chilean born, will also have to explain his opposition to the frontier agreements reached during the Menem administration that ended a century of disputes between Argentina and Chile.

Next week Mr. Kirchner is scheduled to announce in Buenos Aires a package or emergency bills he will present if elected and the names of his collaborators in different areas.