The Ecuadorian press has given a mixed response to the victory of former coup leader Lucio Gutierrez in Sunday's presidential run-off.

Both candidates' campaigns were largely personality-based and various commentators feel that Mr Gutierrez must now turn his attention to specific policies if he is to succeed in turning Ecuador's fate around.

The strongest words of warning come from Expreso where Jorge Vivanco M warns that Mr Gutierrez will awake from the "inebriation of triumph" to encounter "the bitterness of political power".

He explains that Mr Gutierrez has made things more difficult for himself "because of the haemorrhage of promises he made during his electoral campaign".

Immediate talks with the president of Colombia and with leading officials from the US government are vital El Comercio

"The compromises made here, there, over there - wherever he went in search of support - will form a net which will imprison him."

Quito-based El Comercio also sounds a note of caution, urging the president-elect to pay particular attention to "the country's international situation, as well as issues related to internal governability".

"Immediate talks with the president of Colombia and with leading officials from the US government are vital," it stresses.

Need for reform

Supporters of Mr Gutierrez celebrate in Quito

Guayaquil's El Universo echoes this warning and states that Mr Gutierrez must honour his promise to strengthen national unity.

"The institutional weaknesses which have had a disastrous effect on national attempts to grow must be corrected," it argues.

Leading Quito daily Hoy says Ecuador "needs to take big, firm steps that will lead it to political institutional maturity and a restructuring of its political and administrative systems".

Cuenca's El Mercurio, meanwhile, focuses on the apathy towards party politics in Ecuador which has become increasingly apparent during these elections.

It explains that voters chose their candidate "not on the merits or virtues displayed by the finalists but against the party system".

The president-elect, it adds, must "show that a government which is free from a defined ideology and has no party structure is better than those which have led Ecuador" to date.

'Democratic triumph'

Now is not the time to fuel hopes: it is the time to turn them into real services La Hora

Quito daily La Hora, on the other hand, hails Mr Gutierrez's victory as a "democratic triumph" and urges Ecuadorians to congratulate him.

It too sounds a note of caution, however: "Now is not the time to fuel hopes: it is the time to turn them into real services and this requires calmness, wisdom and a strong social and patriotic responsibility."

It warns Mr Gutierrez not to give in to the people's demands too easily, explaining that: "The president's agenda is too delicate, serious and broad to respond to this national confidence with proposals which are in tune with the people in their calls for change."

However, in another article in Hoy, Diego Araujo Sanchez sounds a more positive note:

"The social forces which are behind Mr Gutierrez - the indigenous movement and the sections of the population which support him - offer an opportunity for political renewal."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.