Pipelines:
condensate 224 km; gas 1,693 km; liquid petroleum gas 45 km; oil
280 km; refined products 288 km (2006)

Railways:
total: 4,128 km
narrow gauge: 4,128 km 1.067-m gauge (506 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
total: 92,931 km
paved: 59,783 km (including 171 km of expressways)
unpaved: 33,148 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 136,361 GRT/124,972 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 1, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum
tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
foreign-owned: 4 (Australia 2, Germany 1, Isle of Man 1)
registered in other countries: 8 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Cook
Islands 1, Dominica 4, France 1, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
Auckland, Lyttelton, Tauranga, Wellington, Whangarei

Military New Zealand

Military branches:
New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF): New Zealand Army, Royal New
Zealand Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
17 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be
deployed until the age of 18 (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 17-49: 984,700
females age 17-49: 965,170 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 17-49: 809,519
females age 17-49: 802,069 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males age 18-49: 29,738
females age 17-49: 28,523 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$1.147 billion (FY03/04)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1% (FY02)

Transnational Issues New Zealand

Disputes - international:
asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Ross Dependency) [see
Antarctica]

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

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@Nicaragua

Introduction Nicaragua

Background:
The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from
Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was
declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in
1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the
19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in
subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation
and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a
short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas
to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist r