Bush Pledges to Help Nicaragua Restructure Debt
President Bush yesterday pledged to lead an international effort to help Nicaraguan President Violeta B. Chamorro restructure her nation's $365 million overdue international debt but offered no money beyond previous pledges.</br></br>"One way or another, together we will do it," Bush told Chamorro during a White House meeting yesterday morning, according to Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson.</br></br>Chamorro told Bush that Nicaragua's arrears with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are "the most critical and difficult issue facing Nicaragua today," Aronson told reporters after the meeting.</br></br>"The president pledged strong and firm United States assistance to Nicaragua and made it clear that the United States, along with the World Bank, will lead an international effort," Aronson said.</br></br>Nicaragua must come to an agreement with the international lending institutions in order to be able to borrow more to cope with a collapsing economy. The IDB and the World Bank said in March that each is ready to commit $200 million in concessionary lending over the next three years if the arrears can be cleared up.