QUITO -(Dow Jones)- Ecuador's Finance Minister, Wilma Salgado, resigned Monday and will be replaced Tuesday by Maria Elsa Viteri, current general undersecretary of finance, government sources told Dow Jones Newswires.

The move comes after President Rafael Correa announced that this week he will make "drastic changes" in the Finance Ministry and said that some officials from the Ministry are conspirators.

Salgado, 55, an economist with a doctoral degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, assumed the Ministry on July 8 and replaced Fausto Ortiz, who resigned after disagreements with President Correa.

On Sunday Correa said that public investment was halted last week after ministry officials told Salgado that there was a deficit, but Correa said "there is around $1.64 billion, enough to cover public investment until the end of the year."

-By Mercedes Alvaro, Dow Jones Newswires; 5939-9728-653; mercedes.alvaro@ dowjones.com

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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  09-15-08 2148ET
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