The former United States president Jimmy Carter and ex-Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada are in Ecuador to sign a pilot agreement with the government aimed at reducing official corruption.

In his election campaign, the recently appointed president of Ecuador, Jamil Mahuad, promised to eliminate corruption in the Ecuadorean customs and other state institutions.

He called on the Carter centre and on the international organization Transparency International to help devise a plan to accomplish this.