MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President Kirchner Asks Congress to Remove Judges.

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner criticized the Supreme Court and called on Congress to remove one or more of its justices, a move that may help consolidate his political power.

Kirchner during his 6 minutes speech in a TV/Broadcasting chain last night said he lacks authority to replace any of the nine- member court and asked congress to oust ''men without the right stature to face their responsibilities.'' Without naming the justices, Kirchner referred to four members appointed by former President Carlos Menem.

''We want a Supreme Court with quality, which the current court is a long way from having,'' Kirchner said in a nationally televised address. ''We ask for immediate constitutional medicine for the ailment we face'' in the court.

Judges appointed during Menem's 10 years in office have had clashes with the government during the past three years, undoing restrictions on bank withdrawals and reversing cuts in salaries and pensions for state workers. In March the court annulled a law converting dollar bank deposits into pesos.

Kirchner replaced the heads of the armed forces and police in his first ten days in office.

The new president needs political backing to pull Argentina from its worst economic slump in a century, sparked by the government's default late 2001 on $95 billion of debt and a currency devaluation that left half the population in poverty.

Congress last year ended impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court after the former President Eduardo Duhalde asked it to throw out charges to reduce tensions with the high court that undermined the government's economic policies. A lower house committee had drawn up dozens of charges that judges failed to fulfil their duties or showed improper behaviour.