Argentina to apologise for sheltering Nazis

The Argentine president, Fernando de la Rua, who's making his first official trip to the United States, has held talks with President Clinton.

Later today, Mr de la Rua will visit the US Holocaust Memorial , where he will make an official apology for his country's role in sheltering prominent Nazis at the end of the Second World War.

More than one-hundred-and-fifty Nazis were given refuge in Argentina after the war -- among them Adolf Eichmann, who's considered to have been the chief architect of the Nazi Holocaust.

The BBC South America correspondent says the apology follows recent attempts by Argentina to confront its past. Mr de la Rua has also been meeting US business leaders and representatives of international financial institutions.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service