Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde defended his economic policies in Congress Friday as thousands of pro-government activists massed outside the building to show their support for him. Elsewhere in Buenos Aires, hundreds of unemployed Argentines held a separate rally to demand jobs.

President Duhalde told a joint session of Congress Friday that he would stabilize the struggling economy by fighting unemployment as well as hunger and poverty. He pledged to double the number of federal job subsidies from one million to two million.

In addition, the president said critics who have called for the dollarization of the Argentine economy, such as former President Carlos Menem, are the same people he says have exploited Argentina's economy and people in the past decade.

The comments come as the Argentine Congress debates the president's economic plan to pull the country out of a four-year recession. Argentina also is in default on its $141 billion public debt and struggling to contain unemployment, which has climbed to more than 20 percent.

Several weeks ago, President Duhalde devalued the peso in a bid to revive the economy. The move ended the currency's decade-old one-to-one peg to the U.S. dollar, but some analysts fear it could trigger inflation.

Argentina is said to be seeking as much as $20 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund to help its economy rebound.

In December, the IMF withheld a loan payment to Argentina, saying the government failed to control spending. An IMF mission is expected in Buenos Aires next week for talks on a new aid package.

The United States has expressed its willingness to support new financial assistance to Argentina, as long as the government in Buenos Aires develops a plan for sustainable economic development.

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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