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Portugal: FM Monteiro orders full assessment of Lisbon's aid programs New York, Sept. 20 (Lusa) - Portugal's new foreign minister, António Monteiro, has given the government's IPAD international aid agency one month to make a comprehensive assessment of Lisbon's aid programs, a foreign ministry spokesman said Monday.

The official told Lusa that Monteiro had asked IPAD's newly appointed president, José Iglésias Soares, to report back in one month on "the real dimension" of the country's cooperation programs, namely on "what is being done, in what programs and with what funds".

The government, the spokesman added, was considering "reviewing and restructuring" its aid efforts with other Lusophone countries as part of a new "political and economic framework".

On taking office at IPAD, or Portuguese Institute for Development Support, last week, Iglésias Soares said that, given Lisbon's limited resources, aid programs should follow "rigorous strategies" to maximize results.

At the time, Monteiro stressed that aid was a "fundamental instrument" of Lisbon's foreign policy and should center primarily on helping its former territories in Africa and Asia, its partners within the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP).

Monteiro is in New York, accompanying Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes, who is participating in a world summit on hunger and poverty and will address the UN General Assembly this week.

Among other bilateral encounters while in New York, Monteiro was scheduled to hold talks with his counterparts from Angola and East Timor, both members of the CPLP.

NVI/SAS Lusa