From staff and wire reports

                   QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador's president approved a bill Thursday that adopts
                   the U.S. dollar as the South American country's official currency, completing a
                   controversial move that contributed to a January coup.

                   "This is a law long anticipated in Ecuador that will provide a new structure to
                   the nation," President Gustavo Noboa told reporters after signing the bill
                   replacing the national currency, the sucre, with the dollar. Ecuador's Congress
                   passed the bill early last week.

                   Ecuador is experiencing one of the worst economic slumps in the region, with
                   90 percent inflation, rampant unemployment and barely one in three workers
                   holding a full-time job. The country now has 180 days to withdraw the sucre
                   from circulation and replace it with the dollar.

                   Panama and nine other developing nations also use the U.S. dollar as official
                   currency.

                   After Noboa signed the bill, international lenders announced a three-year, $2
                   billion aid package to help finance the rebuilding of Ecuador's economy.

                   Ecuador can now count on a $425 million lifeline from the World Bank, while
                   the International Monetary Fund said it will contribute $300 million. The
                   Inter-American Development Bank pledged $620 million, and the Corporacion
                   Andina de Fomento -- an Andes-based development bank -- will provide the
                   remaining $700 million.

                   Ecuador had been desperately negotiating for the aid after defaulting last year
                   on its $16 billion international debt.

                   The measure was first proposed by then-President Jamil Mahuad, who was
                   ousted during January protests over the government's economic policies.
                   Mahuad announced the dollar proposal in early January after the country's
                   corruption-ridden banking system nearly collapsed, sending the value of the
                   sucre into a nose-dive.

                   Most of the country's 4 million Indians live in poverty, and Indian groups
                   strongly opposed the currency conversion. By January 21, Indian protesters in
                   Quito were demanding Mahuad's resignation: When the army joined the
                   protests, he fled, and a three-man ruling council turned power over to Noboa,
                   then Mahuad's vice president, after a few hours.

                   After assuming power, Noboa announced he would continue plans to abandon
                   the sucre.

                                The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.