Nicaragua's president-elect, Daniel Ortega, met on Tuesday with Thomas Shannon, the visiting United States deputy secretary of state for the western hemisphere, who had strongly opposed him as a presidential candidate.

Present at the meeting were also Paul Trivelli, the United States ambassador to Nicaragua, and the secretary general of Ortega's party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

US embassy official Cristin Stewart told media that the meeting was the first step in building relations between the US government and Ortega's future government.

During Nicaragua's election campaign, Trivelli worked to form a coalition that included all the country's right-wing parties, in a bid to strengthen the anti-Ortega vote, while several senior US officials spoke against Ortega. The Organization of American States twice condemned the United States for interfering in the election.

On Nov. 5, after winning the election, Ortega told the press he would work with Washington within a framework of mutual respect.

The United States had backed a different right-winger, Eduardo Montealegre, for president, and distanced itself from the right-wing Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC). Arnoldo Aleman, the PLC president of Nicaragua from 1997 to 2002, is currently in jail for corruption.

Shannon arrived in Nicaragua on Monday on his way from El Salvador, and will leave for Panama later on Tuesday. 

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2006 )