Not more than a month after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega publicly slammed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as “corrupt,” he met with U.S. drug officials this week to increase cooperation in the drug war.

“This is an issue we have to work on,” Ortega told DEA Chief of Operations Michael Braun.

Ortega and top U.S. law enforcement officials sat down at the Sandinista headquarters in Managua in an attempt to reestablish a dialogue after Ortega's recent harsh comments.

“We were hoping to establish with this meeting a new stage in the relationship between the Nicaraguan and U.S. governments in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime,” Ortega said.

The meeting comes as the U.S. Congress is debating a $550 million aid initiative to beef up anti-narcotics efforts in Mexico and Central America.

In Ortega's January state of the nation speech, he publicly accused the DEA of having Nicaraguan cops on its payroll, adding that the DEA is “very dangerous.” The U.S. State Department denied the allegation. Ortega is a close ally to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, a staunch U.S. foe who has banned DEA agents from Venezuelan soil.

Despite the verbal riff, Nicaragua, a key thoroughfare for drugs smuggled from South America to North America, has been making record drug seizures since the Ortega administration took over last year. Nicaraguan cops seized a record 20 tons of cocaine last year.

Christy McCampbell, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for counter-narcotics, thanked Ortega's efforts of “keeping drugs off the streets.”

Ortega said Nicaragua's poorest region, the Caribbean coast, could use help for social programs that would prevent Nicaraguan youth from falling into drug use and smuggling.