VENEZUELA, COLOMBIA AGREE TO RESOLVE TRADE DEBTS

Caracas, February 17 (AP)- The top diplomats of Venezuela and Colombia agreed on measures Wednesday for the repayment of outstanding debts that business leaders say have stifled a recovery in trade between the neighbors.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro promised his Colombian counterpart, Maria Angela Holguin, that the government will pressure Venezuelan importers to pay back $335 million they owe to Colombian businesses.

"We want healthy commercial relations," Maduro said at a joint a news conference with Holguin.

Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia pledged in August to repair diplomatic and commercial relations strained by years of mutual distrust.

But a binational business group said this week that trade had not rebounded, blaming the debt problem and bureaucratic snarls.

Trade between Venezuela and Colombia totaled $1.68 billion in 2010, which was down 63 percent from $4.6 billion the previous year, according to the Venezuelan-Colombian Economic Integration Chamber. It was down even more from 2008, when total commerce reached $6 billion.

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