Argentine President to Rent Plane to Avoid Debt Seizure

Concerns her official plane would be impounded

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will go on a four-nation trip in a rented British airplane for fear that her official aircraft would be impounded in a debt dispute, the government said Monday.

Despite a bitter war of words with London over the Falkland Islands, Kirchner's government is paying British air charter firm Chapman Freeborn $880,000 for the trip to Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The government's concern is very real: last year, a court in Ghana impounded the Argentine navy ship "Libertad" for two months following a request from NML Capital, a Cayman Islands-based investment firm.