Quito - Rafael Correa was inaugurated Monday for a renewed and prolonged term as Ecuadorian president, with a four-year mandate in which he vowed to move further towards 21st century socialism.

Before over 1,000 invited guests including 10 South American leaders, Correa attacked "wild capitalism" and "the interests of imperialism."

He stressed his government's opposition to international financial institutions and to "Washington's plans." For his government, Correa said, "human beings are above capital."

The left-wing populist Correa, 46, an economist by training, reached the Ecuadorian presidency in January 2007.

Like many other left-wing Latin American presidents, he since moved to change his country's constitution and was elected in April, with 51 per cent of the vote and therefore without a runoff, for what technically counts as his first term under the new rules.

The inauguration date was picked to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Ecuador's independence and with a summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in which Ecuador took over the organization's rotating presidency.(dpa)