From staff and wire reports

                  QUITO, Ecuador -- Relative calm has returned to Ecuador's capital just a
                  day after President Jamil Mahuad was forced out by a short-lived
                  military-Indian junta and replaced with Vice President Gustavo Noboa.

                  But Ecuadorean Indian leaders are condemning Noboa, who was approved
                  by a congressional vote Saturday. They are calling on protesters to
                  destabilize Noboa's fledgling rule.

                  "We don't accept the presidential succession," said Indian leader Salvador Quishpe. "Mr.
                  Noboa wants to take advantage of our people's fight to keep helping the same people
                  as always, the corrupt bankers. We will defend our historic fight."

                  Noboa, 62, a former dean of Ecuador's Catholic University, said Saturday he would
                  continue Mahuad's plans to replace the nation's currency with the U.S. dollar and to privatize
                  Ecuador's economy, policies that Indian groups have opposed. Noboa added that he
                  would work to stamp out corruption.

                  He is the nation's sixth president since 1996.

                  A day of governmental disarray

                  Angry at Mahuad's inability to stop Ecuador's economic slide, hundreds
                  of Indian protesters, led by Antonio Vargas, stormed the empty Congress
                  building Friday. They and young army officers unhappy with widespread
                  corruption announced the creation of a new government, including a
                  "Parliament of the People" and a three-man governing junta.

                  Mahuad fled into hiding. Defense Secretary and top military chief Gen.
                  Carlos Mendoza took a seat in the junta but then quickly dissolved it, ceding
                  power to Noboa.

                  Saturday, many Indian protesters were leaving the capital and expressing
                  disappointment with Noboa, the breakup of the junta and a lack of military
                  support.

                  "Among the generals there was betrayal," said Indian leader Euclides
                  Collauasi. "They have betrayed us."

                    Mahuad's future murky

                    Mahuad's whereabouts and his future remain unclear. The government
                    of Chile has offered him asylum, but it's not known if he has accepted it.
                    Throughout the crisis, Mahuad has staunchly refused to resign.

                    "A thrown-out president does not resign. He is thrown out," Mahuad
                    said in a Saturday morning television address to the nation. Despite his
                    refusal to step down, Mahuad offered support for Noboa. "I will never
                    be an obstacle for the vice president to assume the presidency," he said.

                  Congress, in a special session on Saturday in the business capital of
                  Guayaquil, passed a motion allowing Noboa to stay in office until 2003, the
                  official end of Mahuad's term.

                  Vargas said Ecuador's 4 million Indians do not recognize Noboa's authority
                  and will continue their struggle throughout the country for radical change.

                  Meanwhile, shoppers strolled through a public market three blocks from the
                  national palace, which was cordoned off and protected by riot police.

                  But security was so lax that shoeshine boys were able to get past
                  barbed-wire barriers to work in the plaza in front of the palace.

                  Nations urge Ecuadorean democracy

                  Governments across the Americas and Europe urged Ecuador to settle its
                  political crisis by democratic means.

                  United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that he was
                  following events in Ecuador closely and was "firmly convinced that the best
                  interests of Ecuador and its people can only be served through the maintenance
                  of constitutional order and the rule of law."

                  In Washington, Mike Hammer, spokesman for the White House National
                  Security Council, said, "While we regret the circumstances that led for
                  President Mahuad to call for public support for a Noboa presidency, his
                  magnanimous gesture paves the way for restoring the country to
                  constitutional order."

                  Mexico City Bureau Chief Harris Whitbeck, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
                                          to this report.