CARACAS, March 5: The crisis gripping South America took a step closer to open conflict on Wednesday with Venezuela saying 10 battalions were now on the Colombian border, and Ecuador warning “ultimate consequences” could ensue.

The developments increased pressure on frantic diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute, which has raised the spectre of OPEC members Venezuela and Ecuador, led by leftists, going to war against Colombia, a US ally.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, in Brazil to drum up regional support for his country, warned that Colombia must be condemned internationally for its cross-border strike against a Colombian rebel camp inside Ecuador on the weekend.

“Otherwise we will have to defend ourselves by our own means. I insist on this: Ecuador is ready to go to the ultimate consequences,” he told reporters.

Venezuela, which has given full backing to Ecuador, confirmed that 10 of its army battalions -- around 6,000 men -- had been sent to the frontier and were 90 percent in place.

The mobilisation was “not against the people of Colombia, but rather against the expansionist designs of the empire”, Venezuelan Defence Minister Gustavo Rangel said, referring to the United States, which has thrown its weight behind Colombia.

Military chiefs did not give details of the movements. The composition of infantry, tanks and other units was not known.

A US defence department official, however, said there were credible reports today of mechanised elements moving out of a major Venezuelan military base in the city of Valencia, in the centre of the country.

Another Pentagon official said the mobilisation was not significant enough to raise concerns in Washington.

The trigger of the crisis was an air and land raid by Colombia inside Ecuador on Saturday to kill Raul Reyes, the number two leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist guerilla group it has been fighting for four decades.Ecuador and Venezuela responded by ordering troops to their borders with Colombia and cutting off diplomatic ties.

US President George Bush hailed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for going after the FARC and blamed the tensions on “provocative manoeuvres” by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Mr Correa, who spoke with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, said the US backing of Colombia was unsurprising, and described Uribe as Washington’s “unconditional puppet”.

He said: “There has been an aggression. The aggressor has to apologise and the international community has to condemn it

.”Correa said his country saw no negotiated solution because “there is nothing to negotiate”.

“Nobody wants war,” he said. “But we won’t fool ourselves. The war was started by Colombia. We were bombed.”

Brazil, along with Chile and Argentina, have already expressed indignation over Colombia’s attack.

Colombia apologised to Ecuador for the raid, but said it was justified, and claimed it had recovered information from Reyes’s computer showing Ecuador and Venezuela were abetting the rebels.

Colombian officials alleged Hugo Chavez gave 300 million dollars to FARC and that the guerillas had tried to obtain 50 kilograms of uranium in an apparent “dirty bomb” plot.

Quito and Caracas denied the allegations and expelled Colombia’s ambassadors while ordering their troops to mobilise.

Venezuela has not closed its 2,000-kilometre border with Colombia, however, according to Rangel, who corrected previous information given by Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua.

Rangel said the troop mobilisation was to “confront threats weighing on our country following the aggression on the territory of the Republic of Ecuador carried out by military forces from the Colombian state”.

—AFP