Latin leaders seek greater say in decisions of international
Latin leaders seek greater say in decisions of international financial community, support Argentina
SANTIAGO (Agencies): A summit of Latin American leaders appealed on Friday for developing nations to have a greater say in decisions of the international finance community, urging swift help for Argentina's acute financial crisis.
President Ricardo Lagos of Chile opened the Group of Rio summit of 19 leaders with praise for democracy that has spread throughout the hemisphere in the last decade.
"No one should think that a coup in the region could be legitimized," said the Chilean socialist president, a leading figure in the struggle for democracy during the 1973 to 1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
In a separate communique from the summit's final statement, the presidents voiced strong support for the Argentine government's efforts to solve its acute financial crisis.
The presidents made "an appeal to the international financial institutions to implement the necessary financial measures to satisfy the current requirements of the Argentine economy", according to the communique.
And in the summit's official statement, issued on the eve of the close on Saturday, the leaders urged "members of the G-8 to implement actions to alleviate the foreign debt of those countries needing it".
In his opening address, Lagos called for greater participation by developing countries in decisions ruling the international financial system.
"We demand that our opinion be respected, because we have made an enormous effort" to keep the regional economy in order, he said.
Lagos urged the nations of the region to unite behind common positions for the upcoming gatherings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and a conference of ministers of the World Trade Organization. The summit expressed support for a new round of the WTO.
Argentina
Argentina's deep debt crisis, which has reverberated throughout economies across the hemisphere, overshadowed the summit.
After arriving for the summit on Thursday, Argentine President De la Rua joined his colleagues from Chile, Brazil and Mexico in a meeting apparently to discuss his country's deep recession.
No details emerged publicly, but Lagos and Vicente Fox of Mexico said in a joint statement before those meetings that an international "vote of confidence" was essential for Argentina's recovery.
"We call upon the international community to get involved in a rapid and effective manner in the solution of Argentina's financial situation," Fox and Lagos said in their statement.
Negotiators from Argentina are in a second week of talks in Washington, seeking fresh loans from the International Monetary Fund. Argentina is struggling with a US$130 billion public debt and a three-year-old recession that has sent the unemployment rate above 15 percent.
The International Monetary Fund said on Friday reports that Argentina was seeking billions of dollars in fresh loans to replenish currency reserves and bolster its economy were exaggerated.
Thomas Dawson, the IMF's director of external relations, said discussions between IMF officials and Argentine finance secretary Daniel Marx were progressing and that he did not know when they would conclude.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill also suggested any funds Argentina gets from the IMF might not be substantial. He told CNN en Espanol: "They just need to keep working until they find a good solution. Maybe it doesn't require a huge flow of additional funds; it requires intelligence. So I hope and I think they're working in a very constructive way to find a good solution."
Earlier Dawson dismissed reports the U.S. Treasury Department was opposed to providing new financial aid to Argentina.
He said Marx and IMF officials were having "good talks, constructive (talks) and I think its fair to say that progress is being made".
"There has been quite a lot of speculation about sizes of packages, (timing) of announcements and so on. As one of the spokespeople for the Argentine ministry said yesterday, these sorts of ... estimates and predictions are rather exaggerated," Dawson said.
He said reports in Argentina media that the package could total up to $15 billion were not realistic.
"I think there's too much of a game that goes on in terms of expecting large amounts, large packages," Dawson said.