Reuters - MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Reuters) - Nicaraguan leftist President-elect Daniel Ortega tried on Wednesday to allay U.S. and business leaders' fears over his Marxist revolutionary past but he also took a swipe at Washington and its war in Iraq.
Ortega, who led Nicaragua through a civil war with U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s, bounced back to power in Sunday's presidential election and is now trying to win support for an assault on deep poverty in the country.
He met with conservative rivals and investors on Wednesday, promising to keep the economy stable and work with the United States, his old Cold War enemy.

But he criticized the Iraq war, saying American voters made clear in congressional elections on Tuesday in which Democrats made big gains that it was time to end the military occupation.
"I hope the U.S. government listens to its own people and soon pulls its troops out of Iraq and puts an end to the war," Ortega said at a victory rally where thousands of supporters set off fireworks and waved the black-and-red flags of his Sandinista Party.
He said Republicans paid the price at the polls for "sticking to a war that is rejected by the whole world."
Washington worries Ortega will join a bloc of radical leaders in Latin America headed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Ortega first seized power in a popular 1979 revolution and has for years been close to Castro. He referred to both Chavez and Castro as "beloved brothers" at the rally on Wednesday.