The United States has requested the extradition of former Guatemala president Alphonso Portillo on suspicion of money laundering.

The US Justice Department says the former president has been using a bank in Miami to transfer government funds to banks in Europe and Bermuda.
 

A spokesperson for Guatemala's interior ministry says the extradition request was approved on Friday but the police cannot locate Mr Portillo, who is also facing corruption charges in Guatemala.
 

Mr Portillo was elected president in 2000 but fled the country shortly after his four-year term ended. He spent four years in Mexico before being extradited to Guatemala in 2008 to answer charges that he embezzled millions of euros of public money in during his presidency.

Photograph: National Palace of Guatemala; J.Stephen Conn/Flickr