SAN SALVADOR -- El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as legal tender Monday,
 kicking off the new year with a brisk exchange of greenback bills at automated
 teller machines in supermarkets and banks.

 Government officials expressed satisfaction with public acceptance so far of the
 new system, which retains the local Salvadoran currency, the colon, and fixes the
 exchange rate at 8.75 colons to the dollar.

 Congress on Nov. 20 approved a monetary integration law allowing free circulation
 of the U.S. currency in all areas of Salvadoran economic activity, which is
 expected to give greater flexibility in transactions performed in euros, yen and
 pounds sterling.

 ``Today is the first day of the new millennium, the first day of the dollar's free
 circulation and, in our opinion, of many good things for El Salvador,'' said Juan
 José Daboub, an assistant to the president.