Protest leaders from two oil-rich Amazon provinces where violent demonstrations brought petroleum production to a halt last week have started negotiations in Ecuador’s capital Quito with President Alfredo Palacio’s government.

Brian O’Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent

Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez has assumed leadership of the Andean bloc president’s council, telling his peers that Latin America was still bound by a ”colonial system” and proposing they pool their energy resources to achieve economic independence.