Ecuador seizes dam company assets

Mr Correa is expected to win a vote on constitutional changes on Sunday

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador has ordered troops to seize the assets of a major Brazilian construction company.

The move follows a dispute over the country's second largest dam, which was built by the Odebrecht company but shut down just a year after it was opened.

The government says this was due to construction faults and it is demanding large sums in compensation.

A deal was believed to have been reached, so it is not clear what led to the latest move, say correspondents.

President Correa issued a presidential decree ordering the requisition of Odebrecht's assets and dispatching troops to take over the company's projects.

A national emergency was being declared, the decree said, to recover the operational capacity of the San Francisco hydro-electric dam and to avoid internal unrest as a result of power blackouts across the country.

Odebrecht's assets, amounting to around $800m (£431m), include a small regional airport, two hydro-electric plants and a rural irrigation project.

Four officials of the company have been banned from leaving Ecuador.