Central America plan foresees infrastructure, energy projects - draft

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A plan by Central American governments to boost economic growth in the region and cut illegal immigration to the United States foresees major spending on infrastructure and energy projects, a draft of the proposal showed on Wednesday.

The "Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle" aims to renovate highways, city bypasses and border crossings in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as carry out improvements to other infrastructure in the region.

A surge of unaccompanied children this year to the U.S. border has pushed the United States, Mexico and Central American nations to seek new strategies to curb the number of children and families trying to get into U.S. territory.

The development plan, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, proposes doubling the capacity of the shared Central American network of power grids known as SIEPAC as well as supplying natural gas from southern Mexico to Central America.

Foreign ministers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador presented the plan to U.S. and Mexican officials on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, without giving details of what it involved.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by Dave Graham)