Chile's new president says to reform pensions, open nurseries
Chile will promote democracy and give priorities to pension reform, free health care and building of nursery schools, newly inaugurated President Michelle Bachelet told reporters on Monday.

Bachelet said her most important task would be the promotion of Chile's pension reform.

She planned to increase the lowest pensions earned by Chileans and offer government pensions to elderly citizens who lack an income and to those who can not work due to physical problems.

Bachelet said they would check how much state funds could be disbursed for that purpose.

The second priority of the new government would be the provision of free health care for Chileans older than 60 in public hospitals, Bachelet said at the press conference.

"This will become effective immediately," Bachelet said. "This is possible because it does not require a law."

The new president also promised to set up 800 new state-financed nursery schools to benefit over 25,000 infants, a part of her plan to boost Chile's education system.

"Inequities begin in the cradle, and that is why it will be my first priority," Bachelet explained, saying one of her goals was to establish an effective social security system which looks after Chileans from infancy to old age.

In her first full working day, Bachelet visited a nursery school in Maipu, a working-class suburb of Santiago, which, she said, showed the new government intended to stress education as a priority.

Moreover, Bachelet vowed to build a society which is not only politically and economically successful but also enjoys deep-rooted democracy.