MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President to go to Chile ?soon'

President Néstor Kirchner yesterday told Chilean Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza that he will visit the neighbouring country soon, in a gesture to further cool down a diplomatic spat sparked by the comments of Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker against the ruling Peronist party.

Insulza was in Buenos Aires to meet with his Argentine counterpart, Aníbal Fernández. Insulza and Fernández agreed to work together to fight crime on both sides of the Andes.

But the President also received Insulza for a few minutes in Government House and told him that he will soon be visiting Chile.

"Kirchner told me he will visit Chile soon," said Insulza after the meeting. No date, however, was set for the trip.

The President said that the relationship with Chile is "very strong" and called on the media and the public "not to mistake an anecdote for reality."

Argentina and Chile have gone through bumpy bilateral relations in the last few months. Early this year, Argentina decided to cut gas exports to Chile in order to avoid an energy crisis back home.

The move angered the Chilean government and public. In the midst of the dispute, Walker wrote an article published in a Chilean newspaper lambasting the Kirchner administration and describing the ruling Peronist party as "authoritarian and quasi-fascist."

The contents of the article were blown up in September, when President Ricardo Lagos appointed Walker as his foreign minister, replacing Soledad Alvear. (BAH)