( L - R ) Garcia, Fujimori

LIMA (Reuters):

Peruvian President Alan García said yesterday his legislative agenda will not be derailed by a dispute with the political party of disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, who is facing trial on human-rights crimes and corruption.

The Alliance for the Future, Peru's fourth-largest party, cut off "cordial relations" with García to protest the pending trial of its honorary leader, Fujimori. García's APRA party lacks a majority in Congress and he normally negotiates heavily with other parties to win votes for legislation, such as a free-trade deal with the United States that Peru's Congress recently approved.

"Governability is assured in our country ... I think the stability of our country is very solid," García said yesterday. "I don't believe the Fujimoristas in Congress will let one court case get in the way of what they say they have always supported: new investments and the country's progress."

García has worked to lure foreign investment to Peru's vast mining sector since his term started last year and the economy is growing about seven per cent a year. Fujimori's brother, Santiago Fujimori, a member of Congress, said his party would keep "supporting the country, but not the APRA government," so long as successful economic policies stay in place.

Fujimori, 69, fled Peru in 2000 when his government collapsed in scandal during his 10th year in office. Chile extradited him on Saturday on half-a-dozen charges, including charges related to the notorious Barrio and La Cantuta massacres that killed two dozen people in the early 1990s, when Peru was at war with the Maoist Shining Path insurgency.