WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States on Thursday criticized
                   preparations for April 9 elections in Peru and called on the government to
                   make sure they are fair.

                   U.S. officials told Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Bustamante of their
                   concerns about the presidential election process at a meeting in Washington on
                   Tuesday, State Department spokesman James Rubin said in a statement.

                   They cited to Bustamante a report on election preparations by the National
                   Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Carter Centre, two independent U.S.
                   monitoring organizations.

                   "They noted that the Government of Peru has not satisfactorily addressed the
                   serious electoral deficiencies identified in the NDI/Carter Centre report,"
                   Rubin said.

                   "They also discussed credible reports of harassment of opposition candidates
                   ... and urged the Government of Peru to take strong and immediate action to
                   halt this harassment and to punish those responsible," he added.

                   The statement said the United States was urging the Peruvian government to
                   take seven specific measures to restore confidence in the electoral process.

                   The measures include "meaningful access" to the media for opposition
                   politicians, a crackdown on the misuse of state resources for electoral
                   purposes, a public campaign to educate the electorate on voting procedures,
                   and investigations into the harassment reports and into allegations that
                   President Alberto Fujimori's "Peru 2000" alliance had forged signatures to
                   meet a registration requirement.

                   Peruvian election authorities said on Tuesday they were investigating
                   allegations that about one million forged signatures had been used to register
                   Fujimori as a candidate.

                   Fujimori, who is a clear front-runner to win the election, said "Peru 2000,"
                   which he formed from widely supported parties, did not need to resort to
                   forgery to meet the registering requirement of about 500,000 signatures. He is
                   seeking an unprecedented third five-year term.

                   The U.S. statement said: "The U.S Government calls on the Government of
                   Peru to move vigorously to meet its commitments to organizing free, fair and
                   transparent elections."

                    Copyright 2000 Reuters.