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US Hopes for Ecuador Improvement

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers expressed hope Monday that authorities in Ecuador will take the proper steps to get its economy back on track.

Summers made his comments to reporters after delivering a speech on the need to crack down on abusive corporate tax shelters to attorneys attending a tax law conference here.

Treasury's assistant secretary for international affairs, Edwin Truman, is in Ecuador to discuss ways to strengthen the country's troubled economy, Summers said.

Ecuador's new president, Gustavo Noboa, is pushing to make the U.S. dollar Ecuador's official currency in a move to stabilize the economy and halt inflation. Such a move would involve gradually replacing Ecuadorean currency, the sucre, with the U.S. greenback.

``It's certainly our hope that Ecuador will move to put in place the kinds of strong measures that can strengthen its economic fundamentals and afford the best prospects for its economic policies, including dollarization, to work out favorably, Summers said.