Brazil Leader Trying to Mediate Border Dispute : South America: Move renews optimism for peace after cease-fire ‘pre-agreement’ between Peru and Ecuador falters.

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso took a direct role Friday in efforts to salvage stymied peace talks between Peru and Ecuador, helping to kindle new hopes for a cease-fire after more than a week of border clashes.

Around midday, Cardoso telephoned Presidents Alberto Fujimori of Peru and Sixto Duran Ballen of Ecuador, urging them to quickly settle differences blocking a cease-fire. A Brazilian spokesman said Cardoso’s conversations with the two added “new political input” to the mediated negotiations taking place here.

Earlier, diplomats from Peru and Ecuador had reached a “pre-agreement” for a cease-fire and sent the proposal to their governments for official approval. But neither Fujimori nor Duran Ballen announced approval of the draft agreement, so Cardoso made his calls.

The negotiations continued Friday night. “Once again, the will to proceed with the peace process was renewed, both by Ecuador and Peru,” said Antonio Simoes, press secretary for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry.

Simoes declined to give details of Cardoso’s conversations with Fujimori and Duran Ballen, arguing that doing so might interfere with the peace process.

“The negotiations are not stalled. They are moving forward,” he said.

“Only a few differences with Ecuador remain,” said Eduardo Ponce, Peru’s deputy foreign minister and delegate to the talks. Ponce told Peruvian reporters that he expected the differences to be be reconciled so that negotiators can “arrive at a final document, which is well advanced.”

“Our program is to wait, persevere, work and not sleep,” he said. Diplomats from the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Chile are mediating the talks, which began Tuesday. The four mediating countries are “guarantors” of a peace pact signed by Peru and Ecuador in 1942 after a territorial war the year before.

About 50 miles of border were left unmarked after 1942. Ecuador has insisted on new negotiations, and there have been repeated border incidents and clashes. The armed conflict that began Jan. 26 has been the worst so far.

Some sketchy press reports said fighting continued Friday in the remote and heavily forested border area, but there was no official confirmation. Wednesday and Thursday, Peruvian troops, helicopters and warplanes attacked Ecuadorean army border posts.

“We are ready to repel this kind of action if it occurs, but we don’t believe it will,” Gen. Jose Gallardo, Ecuador’s defense minister, said Friday.

Gallardo said eight Ecuadorean soldiers have been killed so far in the fighting, while Peru has admitted losing 11 men. Commanders on each side say the other side has lost scores of troops.

In the Rio talks, Peru and Ecuador have agreed in principle to a cease-fire and troop demobilization, but differences have persisted. Peru has proposed a demilitarized zone, but Ecuador has balked at pulling troops out of military posts in the disputed area.

*

On Thursday, several diplomats had expressed “slim hopes” of a solution. Then, suddenly, two “counterproposals” from Ecuador and Peru were placed on the table, and a deadline for ending the peace talks was extended. The delegates rolled up their sleeves and worked through the night, melding the two proposals into one and sending it to Peru and Ecuador for approval, which has not come.

After negotiations resumed Friday afternoon, Fujimori met with Cabinet ministers in Lima, and Duran Ballen returned home from a summit meeting in Venezuela.

Duran Ballen recalled in a televised speech Friday night that Peru and Ecuador had agreed Monday on the text for a cease-fire agreement and that the only undecided point was when it would be implemented.

But then Peru proposed various changes in the text, he said, and “that’s where we still are. Incredibly, five days have passed since that first draft that was agreed upon with the guarantors and the two countries.”

Some analysts here say Peru is prolonging the peace negotiations to give its troops time to advance on disputed borderlands. Peru has said its military action is to remove Ecuadorean troops that have moved into Peruvian territory.

Ecuador says its troops are on Ecuadorean land that they have occupied for years.

Special correspondent Margolis reported from Rio de Janeiro and Times staff writer Long from Quito, Ecuador. Special correspondent Adriana von Hagen in Lima, Peru, also contributed to this article.