The president of El Salvador, Armando Calderon Sol, has said he will press the United States authorities to reconsider their decision to allow illegal Salvadorean migrants only a two month reprieve before they are deported from the United States.

The United States immigration authorities have said that as a result of the havoc caused by Hurricane Mitch, they will allow illegal immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua a stay on deportation of up to eighteen months.

They have refused to extend this to migrants from El Salvador and Guatemala, arguing that these countires were not so badly affected.