Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (l) and his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega, 14 Jul 2008

The assembly rewriting Ecuador's constitution is meeting Thursday to debate the new charter that would grant President Rafael Correa broad powers.

The assembly has been working on the changes since November. If the new constitution is approved, voters will decide in September whether to adopt it.

President Correa has said the constitution should be changed to limit the power of Ecuador's major political parties.

The proposed constitution also would allow Mr. Correa to seek re-election to a new four-year term. Separately, it would transfer to the president functions currently performed by the Central Bank.

Earlier this week, the Constitutional Assembly announced that the Central Bank president, Robert Andrade, resigned but gave no reason for his decision.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.