Poverty and social exclusion in the Iberian-American countries have to be addressed through structural reforms to prevent a crisis such as the one in Ecuador,the head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said on Friday.

During the Iberian-American Meeting that concluded Friday at Seville, Spain, the president of IDB, Enrique Iglesias, urged the countries in the region to make good use of the "economic bonanza"to start structural reforms.

Iglesias said years of economic reforms have not brought "rapid social results," noting that what happened in Ecuador shows that the favorable economic situation does not necessarily prevent the outburst of a political crisis.

Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez was forced out of office on Wednesday after opposition lawmakers decided that he was guiltyof "dereliction of duty." He had faced mounting street protests against his decision to overhaul the Supreme Court.

Source: Xinhua