Brazil granted Ecuador's toppled president asylum this evening as his successor prepared a new Cabinet to try and restore political stability after a week of violent protests.
But Lucio Gutierrez, the third president of the Andean nation toppled amid popular unrest in eight years, was still holed up in Brazil's embassy in Quito, where he fled yesterday after angry crowds stopped him leaving the country.
A state prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant for the former army colonel over the deaths of two people during the protests.
The opposition accused Mr Gutierrez of abusing his power by packing the Supreme Court with allies. A Brazilian foreign ministry spokesman said Brazil was negotiating to get Mr Gutierrez out of the country.
New President Alfredo Palacio, who had been Mr Gutierrez's vice president and replaced him after Congress ditched his boss, prepared to form his cabinet and restore order to a nation shaken by the protests.
"I'm you're only hope," Mr Palacio, a 66-year-old cardiologist, told Ecuadoreans late on Wednesday after demonstrations ended with lawmakers firing Mr Gutierrez.
He said he would consider calls by protesters for early elections but would first propose a constitutional reform. "I will accept the will of the people. My position depends on them, but first we need order," Mr Palacio said.
Washington said early elections could be one possibility to help end the crisis. The Organization of American States postponed till Friday a special meeting to discuss Ecuador and whether the nation's Congress had a right to oust the president.
"We are simply asking everyone to keep calm in the area. There should be no violence. There needs now to be a constitutional process to get to elections, if that is what is in the future," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News.
Street protests erupted in Quito a week ago to demonstrate a Supreme Court decision to drop corruption charges against former President Abdala Bucaram, a key political ally of Mr Gutierrez. Mr Bucaram was ousted by Congress in 1997.
Opposition congressmen, who branded Mr Gutierrez a dictator after he moved in December to pack the Supreme Court with allies, said he had effectively abandoned his post by failing to carry out his duties.