(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-05 21:25

In Washington, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said Colombia's apology was not enough, demanding that the OAS condemn the incursion, appoint a commission to investigate it and call an urgent meeting of the region's foreign ministers in the next week.

Colombia's attack on the camp just over a mile inside Ecuador reflected its frustration over the ability of rebels to take refuge across poorly patrolled borders.

Uribe said he would not allow his nation to be drawn into war.

Venezuela was sending about 9,000 soldiers -- 10 battalions -- to the border region as a "preventive" measure, retired Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas, a former top Chavez aide, told The Associated Press. Ecuador said it sent 3,200 troops to the border on Monday.

Venezuela's agriculture minister, Elias Jaua, said Venezuela had closed the border, which sees annual trade worth roughly $5 billion, to imports and exports.

Leonardo Mendez, a spokesman for a Colombian cargo transport association, said some 300 vehicles, including trucks carrying food, shoes, ceramics and other products, were stuck at one major border crossing.

Despite the shrill rhetoric from the Andean governments, there was little sign of tension in several border towns apart from the turning away of trucks.

When the border is open, some 9,400 tons of merchandise cross each day between Colombia and Venezuela in both directions, said Jaime Sorzano, head of the cargo transport association.

"In the past, we've had episodes, problems, but like this crisis, no," he said. "It's unprecedented."

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