ANALYSIS-Ecuador's Correa moderate despite radicals' pressure

By Alonso Soto

QUITO, July 18 (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa is trying to burnish his credentials with radical supporters ahead of a key referendum vote but he will not abandon the pragmatic policies needed to attract investment in the oil-exporting economy.

Although Correa's rhetoric against "greedy" capitalists will likely intensify before the September referendum on extending his powers, experts say he will keep paying Ecuador's foreign debt and resist calls for socialist reforms.

The popular leftist is trying to keep left-wing radicals as well as more centrist voters behind him so he can win the referendum to give him greater control over the Andean country's sputtering economy and weak political institutions.

Correa had largely eschewed radical positions against businesses and debt-holders, but last week he suddenly seized control of almost 200 companies owned by a prominent business group, including two television stations.

Correa's finance minister resigned in protest, and he was replaced by a former banking regulator who has spooked Wall Street by advocating debt cancellation for poor nations.

The OPEC nation's debt plunged as investors feared that the ally of self-styled socialist revolutionary Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez President Hugo had finally turned his anti-market words into action.

But the moves were part of Correa's balancing act to keep his party united by occasionally firing up hard-line supporters without alienating core centrist voters in a country that has ousted three presidents in the last decade.

Correa last month forced out the highest-profile radical in his team. Alberto Acosta, the head of a constitutional assembly charged with pushing through major reforms, quit after failing to persuade Correa to eject foreign companies from the attractive mining sector.