Ecuador Reports More Border Attacks by Peru : Latin America: Neighboring countries meeting in Brazil attempt to persuade the two nations to observe a cease-fire.

Peru resumed ground and air attacks on Ecuadorean army border posts Wednesday, Ecuador reported, while mediators tried to persuade the two countries to implement an announced cease-fire agreement.

The two countries have been fighting over a 48-mile stretch of disputed borderland for nearly a week. Ecuador declared a cease-fire as of noon Tuesday, and Peru agreed to a “suspension of hostilities” but set no time.

The two countries’ deputy foreign ministers were meeting Wednesday evening in Rio de Janeiro with U.S., Chilean, Brazilian and Argentine mediators. Brazilian Deputy Foreign Minister Sebastiao do Rego Barros emerged wearily from the meeting and told reporters: “A cease-fire has already been announced by both countries, and there is a manifest desire by both parties to accept it.

“But between the announcement and putting it in effect, there are a series of steps still to be taken, a series of procedures of a technical order,” he said.

In a televised speech Wednesday night, Fujimori proposed a cease-fire on the condition that a “demilitarized zone” is established. An international commission of observers could oversee the zone, he said.

There was no immediate response from Ecuador.

Ecuadorean officials reported no fighting Tuesday. But Wednesday afternoon, the joint chiefs of the Ecuadorean armed forces announced that Peru was attacking small Ecuadorean army posts named Coangos and Condor Mirador in the heavily forested border area.

“The operations are supported by armed helicopters, as well as Peruvian air force warplanes,” the Ecuadorean announcement said. “The Ecuadorean army successfully maintains its posts and its positions.”

Peru claims that its military operations in the remote border area are to expel Ecuadorean troops that moved into Peruvian territory recently. Ecuador claims that Peruvian troops have crossed into Ecuador.

According to Ecuador, the Coangos post was established in 1979 and Condor Mirador in 1977.

A correspondent for Radio Quito reported from the border area that Peruvian forces also attacked a third post Wednesday. The station said there were deaths on both sides in Wednesday’s fighting and also reported that a Peruvian helicopter was downed.

Gen. Jose Gallardo Roman, the Ecuadorean defense minister, told reporters Tuesday night that Ecuador’s casualties since hostilities began last Thursday were three dead and six seriously wounded. Peru has acknowledged the deaths of five Peruvian servicemen, all crew members of a helicopter shot down over the weekend.

Peruvian radio stations reported Wednesday that the bodies of a Peruvian lieutenant and two soldiers were removed from the border area. The soldiers were said to have been killed Tuesday by a land mine.

Over the weekend, news media in Peru and Ecuador were reporting totals of more than 30 deaths, mostly on the other side, but those figures have not been confirmed.

In Ecuador, patriotic fervor has been running high since hostilities broke out. Crowds of young Ecuadoreans have gathered daily outside the residential palace, and President Sixto Duran Ballen has repeatedly gone out to speak to them.

Wednesday, Duran Ballen told the crowd that he was leaving for a “Bolivarian summit” meeting in Venezuela with the presidents of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela. They are called the Bolivarian countries because Simon Bolivar led their fight for independence from Spain.

“We understand that the presidents of the other Bolivarian countries are going to demonstrate their solidarity with our people and our fatherland,” Duran Ballen said.

A few minutes later, when a reporter asked if he would meet with Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori at the summit, Duran Ballen said, “I don’t know yet.”

A 1942 treaty known as the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro officially ended a 1941 border war between Peru and Ecuador; Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States were its “guarantors.” Since then, the border dispute has flared up repeatedly. The last serious clashes were in 1981.

Times special correspondent Adriana von Hagen in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.