Argentina seeks bailout as it becomes riskiest country in Latin America.

An emergency mission of top Argentine economic officials is seeking help from the United States and the International Monetary Fund to stem a worsening financial crisis. Central bank President Pedro Pou and Finance Minister Daniel Marx led a hastily assembled delegation in search of $20 billion in support, of which they hoped $7.5 billion would come from the United States.

The mission was assembled after crumbling investor confidence sent interest rates soaring, landing Argentina an unwelcome place in the list of the world's most risky places in which to invest, along with Russia and even worse than war-torn Colombia.

A $1.1 billion Treasury bill auction last week proved to be a very expensive affair, with the government forced to offer interest rates of 13% on 90-day notes and 16% on one-year paper, up from about 10% the notes were paying just two weeks before. Businesses are wringing their hands over the higher rates which have reached 25% on the overnight levels banks charge each other and even higher for business lines of credit, a level at which most borrowing is simply not feasible given the country's slow growth and ongoing economic troubles. The high rates are expected to cost the government $30 million in unexpected expenses over the next 12 months.

Interest rates, which in part reflect investors' perceptions about the risk of investing, are lower in many countries in the region, such as violence-wracked Colombia.

The government is planning to allow banks to access reserves in order to increase the amount of money available for loans in an effort to drive down rates.

There is no one factor behind the dramatic loss of confidence in the government's ability to manage the economy. The widespread perception that President Fernando de la Rua may not be up to the job certainly has investors concerned. His botched attempt at restructuring his cabinet several weeks ago caused the resignation of Vice President Carlos Alvarez and touched off weeks of political turmoil within the ruling Alianza coalition that has still not abated.

New rumors have surfaced that de la Rua will replace Economy Minister Jose Luis Machinea just weeks after giving him greater responsibility. In response, Interior Minister Federico Storani charged that the opposition Peronist party, led by former president Carlos Menem, is trying to manipulate the government's economic policy from without. Comments by Raul Alfonsin, leader of the Radical party, a partner in the coalition, suggesting that the government could better spend $20 billion inside the country than servicing foreign debt was not well received and contributed to the financial community's concerns. So too have rumors the government is considering abandoning its policy of maintaining the peso at parity to the dollar.

Confidence in the government also has been sapped by a series of labor disputes that have disrupted traffic nationwide. Even after the government announced it would move aggressively to halt periodic blockades by unemployed workers that have caused traffic snarls nationwide, workers stepped up their protests, reinforcing the notion that the government is losing control.

The de la Rua administration also is widely seen as having failed to address a bribery scandal, which has severely damaged the image of the president, who campaigned on a promise to clean up corruption.

A number of proposed reforms - being sought by multilateral lending agencies as a condition for support- also are unpopular. These include increasing the retirement age for women, ending guaranteed retirement pension levels and budget cuts.

Most analysts believe rates will come down ff the government can stabilize the political situation and win additional support from the United States and the IMF. But with more than $120 billion in foreign debt, Argentina will continue to be one of the region's largest borrowers and these sorts of crisis will occur again.