Ortega asks big business to help Nicaragua poor
New President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, told big business on Wednesday its investments were safe in Nicaragua but asked companies to give to the Central American country's many poor.

Ortega, who expropriated land and scared away foreign investment when he was president in the 1980s, met the chairman of U.S. food giant Cargill (CARG.UL: Quote, Profile , Research) in an effort to show he has shaken off his radical past.

"You can count on Nicaragua as a country that is willing to continue working and increasing those investments," Ortega told Warren Staley, chairman and CEO of Cargill, which has a chicken processing operation in Nicaragua.

Ortega, 61, has allied himself with U.S. foes Iran and Venezuela since winning November's presidential election, but says he also seeks good relations with Washington and wants to work with the business community.

"What we ask them is for investment that comes accompanied by social elements that contribute to fighting poverty," he said. Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and 80 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day.

"Let's get Nicaragua out of this abyss it's in because we have touched bottom," Ortega, who said.

Cargill gives 2 percent of its annual pre-tax profits to community projects in the countries where it operates, Stanley said.

 The new government met this week with leaders of an autonomous region on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast to try to end a legal dispute that has kept two small U.S. companies from exploring for oil and gas offshore, the foreign ministry said.

Nicaragua's parliament on Wednesday passed administrative reforms sought by Ortega including the establishment of an energy and mining ministry to replace a commission that used to regulate the industries.

Nicaragua suffers frequent electricity blackouts because its aging power plants cannot cope with demand and it receives cheap fuel from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has also sent diesel-fueled electricity generators.

The reforms also set up councils to advise ministries but the new bodies will have little power and members will not be paid.