Nicaragua says bars new US envoy

Nicaragua said that the new US ambassador would not be granted entry due to his "interfering" attitude, as firebrand President Daniel Ortega warned he may consider severing ties with the Netherlands.

The US envoy, Hugo Rodriguez, "will not under any circumstances be admitted into Nicaragua," said Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega's wife.

"Let that be clear to the imperialists," she added, reading a statement from the foreign office on state media.

The US Senate confirmed Rodriguez's appointment, despite Nicaragua having said in July it would reject him.

Nicaragua said it decided to withdraw its approval of Rodriguez because of "disrespectful" comments he made in a hearing before the Senate.

Rodriguez described Nicaragua as a "pariah state in the region" and branded Ortega's government a "dictatorship."

"I would support using all economic and diplomatic tools to bring about a change in direction in Nicaragua," he told the Senate.

One such measure he suggested was kicking Nicaragua out of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

Later in the day Ortega, a former revolutionary, accused the Netherlands of "interventionist" policies and said he no longer wished to maintain relations with the European nation after learning it will not fund a long-promised hospital.

The government asked the European Union ambassador Bettina Muscheidt to leave the country without giving any reasons, according to local media and diplomatic sources.