QUITO, Ecuador - Riot police firing tear gas clashed with hundreds of Indian protesters Tuesday, leaving at least 17 people injured in the second day of demonstrations demanding more roads and better education for isolated Andean communities.

Ecuador's powerful Confederation of Indian Nations called a halt to the indefinite protest to "regroup" following the violence. But in a communique the organization called for President Lucio Gutierrez's resignation and said it would support any decision by smaller affiliated Indian groups to continue demonstrating.

The campaign against Gutierrez's economic austerity policies began Monday in the central highlands, where most of Ecuador's Indians live. The nation's four million Indians account for about a third of its population.

At least 17 people were injured, including four demonstrators who suffered gunshot wounds in Nabon, 225 miles southeast of Quito, the Red Cross said. Authorities reported 19 people arrested.

On Tuesday, protests were concentrated in Latacunga, the capital of Cotopaxi province 55 miles south of Quito, where police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of some 500 protesters. Businesses and shops closed in the small city of about 100,000, which serves as a regional trading center for nearby Indian communities.

Raul Ilaquiche, president of the local Indian movement in Cotopaxi, said some 2,000 demonstrators clashed with about 800 soldiers who tried to prevent them from blocking the Pan American Highway, which runs through Cotopaxi.

Television images showed a dozen protesters looting food from a small market. Other demonstrators were seen blocking cars and trucks and letting the air out of tires.

Indigenous leaders want the government to spend more money on public works, such as new roads, and education for Indians living in isolated villages. They often lack roads to take their products to market and don't have sewage systems or running water.

They have also appealed to Gutierrez to end government austerity measures - such as cuts in cooking gas subsidies he announced upon taking office in January 2003 to meet international lending requirements.

Gutierrez, a former army colonel who led 5,000 Indians in a coup that toppled an unpopular president in 2000, won elections in 2002 with the help of the indigenous groups. Several Indian leaders initially held ministry positions.

The arrangement fell apart last year after Gutierrez's economic policies upset Indian leaders.