Peru leader told to pay child support

Zarai is about to start university

A judge in Peru has ordered President Alejandro Toledo to pay 5% of his salary to support his illegitimate teenage daughter, Zarai.

The ruling came two weeks after Zarai's mother filed a claim in a provincial court seeking 60% of Mr Toledo's salary to fund her daughter's education.

Lucrecia Orozco said Mr Toledo had not kept up regular payments agreed after he recognised the girl as his daughter.

The president earns more than $8,000 a month.

He originally set his salary at $18,000 a month when he took office in July 2001 - the highest of any Latin American president.

But he reduced it several times in the face of criticism.

Appeal

The president agreed to begin making monthly child support payments of around $570 a month after publicly acknowledging the girl was his daughter in October 2002.

But Mrs Orozco told the Assoicated Press news agency that since the payments had never been legally ordered and automatically docked from the president's pay, he could stop making them at any time.

The ruling of a 5% payment would provide Zarai - now 16 - with around $420 a month.

Mrs Orozco's lawyer has said they will appeal against the ruling - arguing that it is too low.

Mrs Orozco and Mr Toledo were lovers while the president was separated from his wife, with whom he also has a daughter, now aged 22.