It was 25 years ago this month that a strong earthquake destroyed much of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. At least 5,000 people were killed, some estimates have put the figure far higher. The city centre has never been rebuilt. But there are now ambitious plans to do so. Andrew Bolton of our Latin America news staff reports from Managua.

Walking around the old centre of Managua is an eerie experience, there are many reminders of the ghosts of the past. I'd seen a lot of photographs of the way the city used to be - a bustling, busy place, the streets packed with people.

But, since that earthquake in 1972, the old downtown area has remained, to a large extent, a lush, green, tropical wasteland. On the gap sites where buildings once stood, grow plants and trees of, it seems, almost every variety.

A few prominent buildings did survive the earthquake, the pyramid-shaped Intercontinental Hotel, the modern national theatre and the multi-storey Bank of America, for example.

Almost everything else, though, was reduced to rubble in a few short minutes of terror. One man I spoke to said almost everyone in Managua knew someone who'd been either killed or injured.

Efforts have been made in the intervening years to create small parks and squares to try to draw people back to the city centre. At the weekends, and in the evenings in particular, the waterfront of Lake Managua is packed with families taking advantage of whatever cool breeze is going. There's even a fun fair, and numerous colourful if down-at-heel stalls selling soft drinks and snacks. Many makeshift dwellings have sprung up over the last 25 years, some built by the owners on the site of their original home, others simply occupied by squatters.

Back in 1972, Nicaragua was ruled by Anastasio Somoza, a member of a powerful but brutal dynasty which had held the country in its iron grip for years. Most of the original foreign aid money never reached the victims of the earthquake. And even after the revolution which overthrew Somoza in 1979, the left-wing Sandinistas did little to rebuild Managua. The long years of civil war surrounding the revolution, and the resulting economic chaos, left no money for such grand schemes.

Now though, with Nicaragua's second post-Sandinista government since 1990 firmly in place, the free-market rulers of the country have decided its time to make a serious start to the reconstruction. It's clear that foreign investment will be the key. And, to make foreign capitalists feel a little more comfortable - almost every outward sign of the former Sandinista government has been obliterated. Once-impressive murals, carrying left-wing political slogans, have been painted over.

One landmark does still exist, however, a statue depicting a revolutionary holding a machine-gun, with the words of Nicaragua's national hero, Sandino, inscribed underneath: "Only the Workers and the Peasants Will Go to the End." A tattered black and red Sandinista banner flutters above it - a reminder to some, perhaps, of what might have been.

Over at the mayor's office, the city's political chief, Roberto Cedeno, told me he thought the old city could be rebuilt within 10 years. Off the cuff, he said it would cost a billion dollars. There would be a new government palace, a new Supreme Court building, and a building to house the headquarters of the electoral commission.

Very important to make sure the electoral commission is properly done, he said. After all, Nicaragua is still a fledgling democracy.

Nicaragua is, of course, still threatened by earthquakes. In fact, on my first day, there was a tremor registering almost 5 on the Richter scale. No damage or injuries were reported. But the event was significant enough to feature prominently on the front page of the next day's paper. Because of this ever-present danger, the authorities say none of the new buildings being planned will be more than three storeys high. And, in a country where, officially at least, most people are Roman Catholic, a lot of faith is being placed in the Almighty.

The Managua mayor told me that only God really knew how the plans for the city would eventually turn out, and if indeed Managua would be spared a repeat performance of the 1972 disaster.
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