MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine debt in G 15 agenda.

Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and a small delegation arrived Thursday evening in Caracas for the XIIth meeting of the G-15, where Argentina's dispute with its creditors and defaulted bondholders is expected to figure in the discussions.

Mr. Kirchner travelled in the presidential aircraft Tango 01 with the First Lady, Senator Cristina Kirchner; Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Bielsa; Buenos Aires governor Felipe Solá and Senator Ramon Puerta chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. The Argentine president will be holding private talks with his Brazilian and Venezuelan counterparts, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez before the official beginning of the two days G 15 meeting.

Venezuela since 2001 holds the presidency of G-15, a group actually of 19 countries from America, Africa and Asia: Algiers, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Peru, Senegal, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

During the two days meeting Venezuela will be handing the presidency of the group to Algiers. G 15 was created in 1989 with the purpose of consolidating South-North cooperation and influencing the South-North dialogue.

Although originally not included in the agenda, Argentina's current dispute with defaulted sovereign bondholders and the IMF that are pressing for a better deal than the 75% face value cut originally offered by Buenos Aires is expected to be on the table. Particularly since the G-7 or group of most industrialized countries (US, UK, Japan, Canada, Germany, France and Italy) are also involved in the issue suggesting Argentina act "constructively" in talks with bondholders.

Argentina faces a crucial second review of the current stand-by agreement with the IMF involving the repayment of 3,1 billion US dollars. IMF has anticipated that "good relations" with bondholders could also be considered when the multilateral credit organization board meets early March.

The dispute has turned increasingly political with President Kirchner insisting Argentina is in no condition to promise any better deal, besides possibly a rescheduling of bonds conditioned to the country's growth.

In the last few days, top delegations from France, Germany, UK, US have visited Buenos Aires and even Spanish president Jose Aznar considered one of Argentina's best friends has also publicly warned about the risks for a country that is left in the fringe of the international financial system and with no access to international credit.