U.S. UNDERSECRETARY ROMERO TALKS TO JOURNALISTS IN QUITO, 1998-08-09 (photo)

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Latin American Affairs Peter Romero talks to Ecuadorean and Peruvian journalists August 9 while leaving the Brazilian embassy in Quito where he participated in an emergency meeting of the Mission of Military Observers for Ecuadro and Peru (MOMEP), made up of military officers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the U.S. who are mediating in a border dispute between Ecuador and Peru that flared into an armed confrontation in 1995. Romero expressed optimism that the governments of Peru and Ecuador would accept the proposal to enlarge the neutral zone along the disputed border section being patrolled by soldiers from the MOMEP countries. RR/ELD/SB