SERGIO DE LEON
  Associated Press

  GUATEMALA CITY - A conservative former mayor was sworn in as Guatemala's new president Wednesday, promising to use an infusion of private
  investment to create jobs, eradicate poverty and stamp out corruption.

  Oscar Berger, who served as mayor of Guatemala City from 1990 to 1999, said hundreds of new public works projects would extend basic services to rural
  areas while creating jobs nationwide.

  "We are going to push the country's productivity so as to create conditions where every Guatemalan can work," Berger, 57, said in his inauguration
  speech, shortly before being sworn in. "We are developing a new rural development strategy while always supporting the expansion of those motors that
  drive the economy."

  Berger said his government would be austere, but he also pledged to launch a major anti-corruption campaign to clean up the government and the
  national police force.

  "We need to feel like we live in a safe country," he said. "We want an honest and capable police force."

  But Berger may have to grapple with Guatemala's bloody past before he can turn his attention to the future. One of the men he beat at the polls, former
  dictator Efrain Rios Montt, faces charges of genocide for atrocities committed during his 18-month rule, which ended in August 1983.

  The retired brigadier general and ordained Protestant minister has served as president of the legislature since January 2000, but his unsuccessful attempt
  to win the presidency means his term expires Wednesday - and so does his immunity from criminal prosecution.

  Berger has repeatedly dodged questions about whether his government will continue to investigate the at-times frail 77-year-old. That means formal
  charges and arrest warrants against Rios Montt likely won't materialize for months or years, if ever.

  Berger promised to strictly adhere to the U.N.-brokered peace accords that ended a 1990-1996 civil war and offer recommendations on how to reduce the
  role of the military in government and how to promote greater social and economic equality.

  "We can't talk about unity without promoting the peace accords," Berger said. "This task will be fundamental for this government, the way to ensure
  respect for human rights and equality for everyone."

  Berger already has met with representatives of New York-based Citicorp to discuss the possibility of issuing treasury bonds to finance Guatemala's debt.
  He met Wednesday morning with President Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who heads a U.S. delegation to the inauguration.

  Berger takes the reigns of a nation of 11.3 million, 60 percent of whom live in poverty while a few have amassed great wealth. According to census figures,
  half of Guatemalans are Indians - most of whom lack decent education or health care.

  Berger, a lawyer and rancher, will also have to find common ground with a combative Congress, where his party controls just 47 of 158 seats. He takes
  office as the first president since 1995 whose party doesn't enjoy a legislative majority.

  Rios Montt oversaw the most-brutal period of the 36-year civil war against leftist guerrillas. He carried out a scorched-earth campaign that torched villages
  and killed thousands of civilians in an effort to eradicate insurgents.

  Survivors of the violence joined with relatives of those killed to compiling a lengthy criminal complaint charging the former dictator with genocide in 2001. A
  government prosecutor has since heard the testimony of hundreds of witnesses, but has yet to file charges against Rios Montt.

  Meanwhile, a Spanish court has agreed to hear a case accusing Rios Montt of murdering Spaniards during his dictatorship.

  Frank La Rue, head of a human rights group that filed the Guatemalan complaint, said his organization's lawyers hope to question Rios Montt by April.