MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner to visit Chile in “coming days”.

Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Bielsa said this Monday in Santiago that President Nestor Kirchner will not be visiting Chile in the “coming days” as was earlier anticipated.

The meeting with President Ricardo Lagos was scheduled for this week in coincidence with the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Peace and Friendship Treaty between both countries which put an end to frontier disputes in the extreme south of Patagonia.

Mr. Bielsa who was participating of the "Two plus Two" meeting held in the Chilean Foreign Affairs Ministry indicated that Mr. Kirchner could not be coming because of "agenda problems", which apparently were also complicating Mr. Lagos.

However Mr. Bielsa called on the press and public opinion for "no second reading or interpretation" of the decision and insisted the presidential bilateral summit will take place sometime before the end of 2004.

Mr. Bielsa talked about the situation during a press conference sitting next to Chilean Foreign Secretary Ignacio Walker and both countries Defence Ministers, Jose Pampuro from Argentina and Jaime Ravinet from Chile.

According to Chilean sources the four ministers' agenda addressed joint measures to combat drug trafficking, smuggling, regional security and peace operations exchange of experiences.

Another significant issue was the review of the current standard methodology for assessing military expenditure by both countries and the joint participation in the United Nations Peace and Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

The "Two plus Two" meetings were began back in 1997 and have helped with confidence building and strengthening bilateral relations.

Meantime in Buenos Aires Congressional leaders from Argentina and Chile joined to recall the 1984 event and commit further bilateral integration.

Deputy Eduardo Camaño, Argentine Lower House president, his Chilean counterpart Pablo Lorenzini, Argentine Senate president Daniel Scioli and Hernán Larraín from Chile signed a declaration establishing that the Peace and Friendship 1984 agreement opened the way for "a bilateral relation characterized by the peaceful solution to all limits disputes, strengthening of cooperation and integration and enshrinement of our strategic alliance".