Chile quake to cost US$30 billion

A day after being sworn in as the South American country's new leader, Pinera told foreign reporters he would “reassign some resources from the national budget” to help bear the costs of reconstruction.

He would also call for help from other nations and draw on “international credits” to finance rebuilding projects after the destructive 8.8-magnitude quake on Feb. 27 that unleashed a Pacific-wide tsunami.

“It's true that Chile is a country that is poorer now” than before the quake, Pinera told reporters.

But the government intends in part to tap its savings earned from copper, of which Chile is the world's largest producer, to pay for quake losses.

Copper prices have “fortunately remained firm, which will provide additional resources for reconstruction,” Pinera said.

Authorities have identified 497 bodies of victims of the quake -- one of the largest in modern times -- and tsunami, but Pinera acknowledged the toll would rise “because there are many dead who have not yet been identified, and many still missing.”

Half a million homes were destroyed or heavily damaged, mainly in central and southern coastal areas.

Pinera, a billionaire businessman ranked 437 on Forbes magazine's list released this week of the world's richest people, said it will take an “enormous austerity effort” to fully carry out the government's reconstruction plans.

During his campaign, Pinera deflected accusations of potential conflicts of interest between his political ambitions and his corporate empire, promising to sell the bulk of his shares in airline LAN Chile before taking office.

On Friday he announced he had “finalized” or was “a few days from finalizing” the sale of his shares in a large Santiago clinic and his shares of LAN, South America's largest airline, of which he owned 26 percent.

Pinera said he had to date sold more than 60 percent of his airline shares, but that the rest had been delayed “for reasons beyond my control,” notably the earthquake.

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