There was no indication of the scale of the deployment, which comes as tensions are rising over the standoff between Latin American oil producer Venezuela and the United States.

The personnel will be deployed at Ecuador's Manta air force base, which had served as a US base for a decade until 2009.

Ecuadoran voters in November overwhelmingly rejected a bid by President Daniel Noboa to lift the country's ban on foreign bases. But according to the US embassy in Quito, the deployment is a "temporary operation with the Ecuadorian Air Force in Manta."

The "short-term joint effort" will "enhance the capacity of the Ecuadorian military forces to combat narco-terrorists, including strengthening intelligence gathering and anti-drug trafficking capabilities, and is designed to protect the United States and Ecuador from the threats we share."

Ecuador's defense ministry said that US planes with "military material" had arrived in the country, but gave no further detail.

Noboa is attempting to roll back a wave of narcotics cartel violence and has argued that Ecuador needs help to fight the gangs.

The United States under President Donald Trump is aggressively moving to combat drug operations in Latin America.

At the heart of the campaign is a growing conflict with the hard-left government in Venezuela.

Massive US naval and air forces have been deployed in waters off Latin America and dozens of small boats allegedly running drugs have been bombed in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing at least 95 people so far.