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No breakthrough in talks with Argentine farmers

"We have had our first encounter with Argentina's farm leadership. I believe the talks were highly useful."

Alberto Fernandez, Argentine Cabinet chief

Marathon negotiations between top Argentine Cabinet officials and striking farmers ended early yesterday without yielding an accord on disputed export tax hikes, but the government vowed to resume talks next week.

Some hardline strikers vowed to immediately resume a highway blockade at a major stranglehold north of the capital after Friday's brief truce. But there were no reports of other blockades going back up and farm group leaders said they would consult the rank-and-file to determine the next course of action.

Before the first talks since the beginning of the strike -- which saw farmers set up road blockades that choked off the flow of farm goods to major cities -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez tried to defuse days of bitter recriminations by shaking hands with farm leaders at the Government House in Buenos Aires.

After negotiations ended past midnight, Fernandez's top aide told reporters the dialogue would continue tomorrow.

"We have had our first encounter with Argentina's farm leadership. I believe the talks were highly useful," said Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez, who is not related to the president. "We have been able to speak after 16 days of missed encounters and silence."

Small farmers are protesting bitterly that they have been unfairly hit by a March 1 presidential decree that hiked export taxes on soybeans from 35 percent to as much as 45 percent and slapped new duties on other farm exports. Fernandez intends the measure to help stem rising inflation.

On March 13, the growers launched their strike, burning tires, marching through the capital banging pots noisily and using trucks and tractors to erect highway barricades across the heartland. The strike had all but paralyzed one of the world's leading exporters of soybeans, beef and wheat.

They lifted the roadblocks on Friday in a conciliatory gesture to jump-start talks with the government -- but even then warned it was a temporary truce.

"The strike hasn't been lifted. What we've decided is to allow free transit on the roads while these talks go on," farmers' leader Pedro Apaolaza said at the time.

He warned that farmers remained "in a state of alert and mobilized on roadsides."

Fernandez had criticized the protests harshly, vowing not to negotiate with a "pistol pointed at my head."

She softened her tone in recent days and appealed for national unity to maintain a robust five-year rebound from a 2002 economic meltdown.

"I've learned that a country isn't built by one political party nor by one sector. A country is built by all," Fernandez said this week.

But she insisted that farmers have profited greatly from high commodity prices in the past five years and must now share some of those gains to help redistribute wealth to Argentina's poor.
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