El Salvador faces stark choice

El Salvador's voters faced a stark choice in yesterday's presidential election: one of the hemisphere's most pro-US governments or a former Communist guerrilla leader.

With an unusually high turnout reported, most polls put the conservative businessman Tony Saca, 39, well ahead of Schafik Handal, 73, who led the Communist faction of the rebels who fought military governments for 12 years before signing a peace treaty in 1992.

Two other candidates were expected to attract just a few percentage points.

Mr Saca's Nationalist Republican Alliance has won three consecutive elections since 1999.