MOSCOW (CNN) -- On his first full day as Russia's new prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov moved to assure Western governments and investors that his country would stick to a sound economic strategy.

At a meeting with leading members of the Russian media, Primakov said the new government was working on a plan to rescue the nation from possible bankruptcy.

"We shall pay all our debts," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Primakov as saying. "Russia is not the kind of country that will declare itself bankrupt, and it will never become this."

"The new government will see to this, and it is already working in this direction," he said.

Primakov, the former foreign minister, was appointed prime minister by President Boris Yeltsin after his first-choice candidate, Viktor Chernomyrdin, was twice rejected by the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. Primakov's appointment was approved by the Duma Friday.

On Saturday, Yeltsin had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Clinton, and echoed Primakov's reassuring words.

Yeltsin "reiterated they remain committed to economic reform and will stay the course," said National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley.

A statement from the Kremlin said Yeltsin "underlined the stability of foreign policy, including the mutually beneficial and equal partnership with the U.S., consistency in reforms and the lack of any alternative to market-oriented policies."

Primakov got a vote of confidence Saturday from German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

"He is certainly not the prototypical reformer, but he takes small steps in the right direction," Kohl said in an interview to be published Sunday in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "I am convinced Russia won't fall back into the past."

Reuters contributed to this report.