Argentine president to hit the road

BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will do some globe-trotting this spring to shore up international relationships, it was reported Sunday.

Kirchner is to visit the Dominican Republic in early March for a two-day summit of the Rio Group to take up regional issues. That will be followed by a trip to Britain at the invitation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to discuss global social issues.

At the end of April, she will hold a meeting of Spanish women politicians in Buenos Aires before heading to Peru for the European/Latinamerica Caribbean summit in May.

All this comes amid the backdrop of an ongoing investigation in which U.S. authorities are looking into the matter of a U.S.-Venezuelan citizen, Antonini Wilson, who allegedly was caught in Buenos Aires with a suitcase filled with $800,000 intended to finance Kirchner's election campaign. The money allegedly came from the Venezuelan oil corporation PVDSA.

The incident, just days into her term, prompted Kirchner to limit U.S. Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne's contacts in Argentina to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. However, she has since invited Wayne to a meeting with her, and two of her top aides are to travel to Washington soon.