Argentine President Raul Alfonsinmet for more than an hour with International Monetary Fund
Managing Director Michel Camdessus, and Argentine economy
minister Juan Sourrouille said the two men discussed
Argentina's economy and its commercial bank financing package.
    Sourrouille told reporters that 91.5 pct of the 1.95
billion dlr loan, which forms the core of the package, has been
subscribed.
    Citibank, the chairman of Argentina's bank advisory
committee, said yesterday that subscriptions totalled about 91
pct.
    The IMF has said that a "critical mass" of bank commitments
is needed before it will start disbursing the 1.83 billion dlr
standby loan that it has approved in principle for Argentina.
    Asked what the IMF has stipulated as a critical mass,
Sourrouille said, "That has not been defined but anywhere over
90 pct we are doing fine."
    Although most of the money has been subscribed, officials
noted that about a third of Argentina's 350 creditor banks hold
93 pct of its debt. They are worried that it might take a long
time to persuade the other banks to join the deal.
    Monetary sources said Alfonsin and Camdessus, who had not
met before, mostly discussed Argentina's political and economic
situation. Alfonsin, who is beginning a four-day private visit
to the U.S., was in Philadelphia to speak to the private World
Affairs Council, a non-partisan body dedicated to increasing
public awareness of international affairs.
    In his speech, Alfonsin said economic integration is the
only way for Latin America to overcome its current crisis.
    "This (economic integration) is probably the most audacious
challenge facing Latin America this century, perhaps the most
audacious of our history," he said.
 Reuter
