BY JIM WYSS
 Special to The Herald

 QUITO, Ecuador -- After 10 days of civil disorder and the deaths of three Indian
 protesters, President Gustavo Noboa reached an accord Wednesday with
 indigenous leaders that promises an end to demonstrations but could alienate the
 country's business elite.

 Under the 24-point deal, the government agreed to reduce heavily subsidized
 cooking gas prices 20 percent to $1.60 per canister and freeze gasoline and
 diesel prices until year's end.

 In addition, the administration will release the dozens jailed during the strikes and
 compensate the families of those that were hurt and killed by the police. In
 exchange, the thousands of indigenous protesters who have been camped out at
 a local university since last week agreed to go home, ending a potentially bloody
 confrontation.

 'VICTORY FOR ALL'

 ``This agreement is a victory for everybody, not just the indigenous population,''
 said march leader Antonio Vargas, president of the country's largest indigenous
 organization, CONAIE.

 Victory or not, analysts are hoping the deal will end one of the most violent
 protests the country has seen in years.

 Haunted by the ghosts of the indigenous-led coup of 1999 that toppled President
 Jamil Mahuad and shoved the mild-mannered Noboa into the nation's top spot,
 the administration took an unusually tough stance against protesters.

 Initially, it refused to even consider price revisions. Then, when protesters broke
 off talks Friday, Noboa issued an emergency decree that allowed him to use the
 army to break up meetings and raid the buildings that protesters had turned into
 their headquarters and barracks.

 The violence came to a head Monday when the army and a mob clashed over
 control of a bridge in the jungle town of Tena. By the time it was over, three
 people had been killed, including a minor, and dozens were injured.

 FLIGHTS HAMPERED

 Protesters also burned down the town's air traffic control tower to keep more
 troops from being flown in. In a separate incident, a demonstrator was shot dead
 in Tungurahua province.

 Hoping to defuse the situation and avert a national strike that labor unions had
 announced for Wednesday, the administration resumed talks late Tuesday.
 Political analyst Simon Pachano, director of the Latin American Faculty of Social
 Sciences, said the demonstrations turned violent because neither side was willing
 to compromise.

 ``The government thought they could solve the problem with a strong-arm
 approach, and they found out they couldn't,'' Pachano said.

 As a result, he said, the administration has come out looking mean-spirited and
 weak. On the other hand, the indigenous movement -- which had been in decline
 since its aborted 1999 coup attempt -- was given new life.

 BUSINESS BACKLASH

 ``Many of the country's powerful groups are going to be angry over these
 concessions,'' said Gustavo Arteta, an analyst at the Social Development Corp.,
 an economic think tank. ``Their attitude will basically be that the government
 wants to raise their taxes but isn't willing to cut subsidies.''

 The government has been trying to make fiscal ends meet to unblock a $304
 million loan from the International Monetary Fund. Wednesday's agreement will
 create a fresh $20 million to $30 million budget gap that the government will have
 to cover one way or another, Arteta said.

 Since 1997, Ecuador has had five presidents, two constitutions and multiple
 cabinet changes. By reaching an agreement with the protesters, Noboa has
 apparently survived the first true threat to his presidency, but his popularity is
 slipping.