MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina requests continued US “political support”

Argentina officially requested United States continued support for the beleaguered country's debt restructuring process and negotiations with key multilateral organizations such as G-7, IMF and World Bank.

During a 45 minutes meeting Thursday in Washington with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Argentina's Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Bielsa asked for President Bush's "political support", --which had been decisive during his first tenure--, to continue advancing in negotiations with multilateral credit institutions, particularly the Group of Seven most industrialized countries, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, reported Argentine diplomatic spokesman Oscar Feito.

The meeting was described as a "friendly discussion" by State Department sources which did not give further details. However Argentine diplomats used the word "excellent" pointing out that Ms. Rice ratified President Bush' support to the Kirchner administration which he personally expressed during a telephone call to Buenos Aires earlier this week.

"The support was not explicit, but it comes from Ms. Rice receptivity, her comments, her questions", added Mr. Feito.

Mr. Bielsa was accompanied by Argentine ambassador in Washington Jose Octavio Bordon and Ms. Rice by Under Secretary for Hemispheric Affairs, Roger Noriega.

"We don't want the US to change its position in G-7 or the IMF or the World Bank; we want the current status quo and a stable relation with the White House", insisted a member of Mr. Bielsa's delegation.

The White House is decisive for the coming meeting of Economy Ministers from G-7 (US, Germany, Japan, Italy, UK, France, Canada) that will be meeting in Washington hosted by US Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Italy, Germany and Japan are not pleased with the defaulted bonds exchange operation concluded by Argentina since many of their nationals' have savings in those papers and they refused to accept a 70% face value cut.

Apparently Ms. Rice was well informed of the operation and one of her questions was precisely if Argentina would offer a second chance to bond holders who did not participate in the first exchange operation.

The Argentine press reports that Mr. Bielsa reply was a definitive no.

Democracy and governance in the continent was also in the agenda particularly in countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Haiti.

"Each country made an assessment and estimated future evolution of the different situations and regarding Venezuela this was addressed clearly and with total frankness", revealed Mr. Feito.

The White House would like Brazil and Argentina to join US strategy supporting democracy and civil liberties in Venezuela, as well as contributing to contain President Hugo Chavez, who Ms. Rice openly describes as "authoritarian".

And is spite of the fact there was not enough time for several other items of the agenda, both officials agreed "to promote a more frequent dialogue, more institutional", both to address bilateral and multilateral affairs, explained Mr. Feito.

"This is a very special moment of the bilateral relation; with only two years in office (Kirchner administration) we have an ample agenda and a correct exchange", insisted Mr. Feito who recalled that in the last two months, besides this week's long phone conversation between the two presidents, Argentine vice-president Daniel Scioli visited vice-president Dick Cheney in Washington and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Defence Minister Jose Pampuro in Buenos Aires.

However according to Argentine diplomatic sources some of the items not discussed included Argentina's position in the coming UN Human Rights Commission vote on Cuba; immunity for US troops in joint exercises in Argentina; alleged existence of terrorist cells in the so called triple frontier (Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay) and the imminent nomination of OAS Secretary General.