President Mauricio Macri said Friday he had told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Argentina was ready to build a "pragmatic, intelligent" relationship with Washington.

Relations between Argentina and the United States soured under the South American country's former leader, Cristina Fernandez, who was a prominent member of the continent's leftist bloc.

Sat alongside Macri at a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said the Argentine government wanted to engage U.S. creditors in debt negotiations and expected the hedge funds to do the same.