Buenos Aires  - In a move to confront the growing threat of recession, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Tuesday announced a 21.5-billion-dollar (71-billion-peso) programme to create jobs in the construction industry.

The aim is to expand the number of jobs in the sector from 362,000 to 770,000, Kirchner said at the annual meeting of the building industry in Buenos Aires.

Details of the programme are to be unveiled on December 15.

Kirchner has already launched measures to encourage the return of capital investments and the creation of new jobs. A new ministry of production is to be created. Planning Minister Julio de Vido said the moneys are to be deployed over a three-to-five year period, according to the newspaper La Nacion.

The funding is to come from the collective capital of private pension plans of 78 billion pesos. The controversial nationalization of the pension programmes was approved last Thursday by parliament.

Economists are bracing for a possible recession next year in Argentina, which has seen 8 per cent growth rates for the past six years. In 2009, Argentine growth could drop between 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent, experts say.

Reflecting the global economic downturn provoked by the turmoil in the US financial system, rgentina has seen dropping consumption, higher interest rates, capital flight and plunging commodity prices for Argentine export goods such as soya beans. (dpa)