Argentina-Drought hits soy planting.

ARGENTINA.

SOY CROP.

The soy crop for 2008-9 will be seeded on 16.5 million hectares as opposed to the 17.8 million hectares forecast last month.

The current drought conditions will not allow direct seeding into the corn stubble without ploughing, which is the Argentine way of planting the land is to hard.

The economy grew by 6% in 2008 according to figures released by the central bank on Thursday.

Meanwhile the President of Argentina, held an unscheduled meeting with Fidel Castro in Havana on Wednesday, during her three day visit to the Island.

Sources say that during the meeting, Fidel the leader of the communist revolutionist party that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959, referred to President Obama with optimism