Leftist Rafael Correa was sworn in as Ecuador's president on Monday.

Correa, a 43-year-old former economy minister, was elected by a wide margin in November's run-off. He beat a business magnate with promises to challenge unpopular political elites and alleviate poverty for millions in the Andean state.

The tall, charismatic leader seems poised to follow Chavez's daring style, looking to renegotiate debt, rework oil deals, rewrite the constitution and not renew the lease on a military base used by the US military.

"The night of neo-liberalism is coming to its end," the US-educated economics professor told a crowd on Sunday in the Indian hamlet of Zumbahua, where he taught mathematics as a volunteer in the 1980s.

Correa's win in the world's top banana exporter bolsters Latin America's resurgent left. He joins Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in criticizing US policy in the region.

Still, Correa's anti-US rhetoric is not so vehement as his Venezuelan counterpart.

Although Correa said the Devil should feel offended that Chavez compared him to US President George W. Bush at the United Nations in September, the Ecuadorian later called Bush "noble" for congratulating him on his election win.

He also asserted the independence of South America's No 5 oil producer from Caracas, insisting "My friend does not rule in my house, I do".

Correa was officially sworn in at the Venezuelan Congress Monday and then traveled to a site outside Quito for meetings with fellow heads of state. A controversial presence among them was that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on a Latin American tour that included a visit on Sunday with Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega.

Correa's bold political platform has not only rattled Wall Street, increasingly worried about the left-wing resurgence in Latin America, but raised tensions in Ecuador's volatile political system, where three presidents have been toppled by popular and congressional turmoil in the last decade.

Earlier this month, it appeared Correa's first weeks in power would be tense with a Congressional majority opposing his constitutional reforms.

Correa would like the constitution changed to lessen political influence in the judiciary and make lawmakers live in the small constituencies they represent. Legislators have attacked this plan, calling it a first step to him bypassing them.

However, an ousted president and leader of parliament's second largest party on Thursday threw his weight behind Correa, allaying the risk of the new president running into early trouble.

Correa opposes signing a free trade deal with the United States and instead looks to join Venezuela in the ALBA, an alternative pact grouping leftist allies such as Cuba in an axis against Washington's economic policy.

Raised at the heart of a middle-class family in the port city of Guayaquil, Correa won scholarships to study in Europe and the United States. He speaks English, French and a little Quechua, a native language of the Andes.

(China Daily via agencies January 16, 2007)