Colombians face austerity measures

Mr Uribe said he would press ahead with necessary reforms

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has announced plans for new economic austerity measures in the wake of an apparent government defeat in a referendum on political and economic changes.

In a televised speech, Mr Uribe said the government respected the outcome of the referendum last weekend, but he said it would have to find ways of achieving the same objectives.

He said he would present reform plans to Congress and would consider public spending cuts and tax rises, among other measures.

The final outcome of the referendum will not be known until counting finishes later this week, but provisional results suggest that at least 11 of the 15 government proposals failed to gain enough support.

Each point needed to be voted on by at least 25% of the electorate, but turnout was low. Observers blamed confusion caused by the complex questions and fear of violence.

Mr Uribe said it was already clear that there had been strong opposition to some changes, such as freezing public workers' salaries and cutting the number of congressmen, and he would not be insisting on those.

Others, however, had mustered more popular support, despite the lack of votes in their favour, and would be presented to Congress in the reform package.

Cabinet crisis

The BBC's Hector Latorre in Bogota says the president will not find it easy convincing Colombians to accept the measures.

Our correspondent says that despite the huge support that President Uribe enjoys as a result of his tough stance against rebels, these measures are unpopular because they hit the pockets of ordinary Colombians.

On Wednesday, several members of the Colombian cabinet offered their resignations following the referendum setback.

REFERENDUM ISSUES Freezing public workers' salaries State pensions Regional auditing offices Funding education and healthcare Destination of oil revenues Congressional voting Numbers of congressmen Role of congress Government funding of regional projects

They included Fernando Londono, who is both interior and justice minister. He said he was responsible for the result of Saturday's referendum and would go if the measures fail to gain approval, as appears likely.

In a further electoral defeat for the president, voters in the capital, Bogota, chose a former trade union leader, Luis Eduardo Garzon, as the city's first left-wing mayor in local elections on Sunday.

Mr Garzon - an ex-communist who came third in last year's presidential election - beat his government-backed rival, Juan Lozano, by 47% to 40%.

The mayor of Bogota is regarded as a prestigious political post and will give the left-wing opposition a platform from which to criticise Mr Uribe.