WASHINGTON - World Bank President James Wolfensohn said Thursday he hoped Argentina would soon make its return to the international financial system.
"I do not have a menu for Argentina at this moment; I'd leave that for my colleague at the Fund (IMF) to try and develop," Wolfensohn told reporters ahead of the annual spring meetings of the two financial institutions.
"My hope is that we could have Argentina willing to be and anxious to be part of the ongoing international financial system, and that recognition of its potentialities and problems is something that we can get a negotiated answer on," he stressed.
To negotiate a new program with Argentina, the IMF wants what it considers a realistic strategy for handling private creditors of its public debt which were left out of the debt writedown deal that ended February 25, in which 76.15 percent of holders of Argentine debt took part.
But Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna has said the government of President Nestor Kirchner will not accept "discriminatory stances" from the IMF.
"The bank is ready to work on social issues, on the issues of utilities, on the issues of investment programs in Argentina, when we know what the rules are and what the arrangements are," said Wolfensohn, who is set to leave his post after a decade at the helm of the bank.
04/14/2005 15:22 GMT