Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega plan to meet privately today in Managua, a much anticipated encounter after tension between them has been brewing during the past several months.

Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos announced yesterday that the two leaders plan to meet while Arias is in Nicaragua for a forum on peace in Central America organized by Catholic University. However, Casa Presidencial spokesman Pablo Gueren could not confirm that Arias plans to attend.

The forum is being held in honor of the 20 th anniversary of the 1987 Esquipulas peace agreements, which ended years of violence in the region. Ortega was among signers of the agreement, and Arias later won a Nobel Peace Prize for drafting it.

Ortega did not attend a similar event held in San José Aug. 8 (TT, Aug. 10) because he was busy meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Many suspected the real reason for his absence was the tension between the two leaders, whose terms also coincided during their first stints as President in the 1980s.

Ortega said in March that Arias' Nobel Peace Prize should have gone to former Salvadoran President José Napoleón Duarte. In May, Ortega argued that the anniversary celebrations should be held in Esquipulas, Guatemala instead of San José.

Other points of friction between the two leaders include the countries' border region, the treatment of Nicaraguan immigrants and Costa Rica's unwillingness to join institutions of regional integration, such as the Central American Parliament (TT, April 27).

Santos said Arias and Ortega plan to discuss at least a few of these topics today.

-ACAN-EFE and Tico Times