Haiti asks for foreign help, US rebuffs call

France, however, said it would consider sending peacekeepers and UN chief Kofi Annan said he was mulling some kind of action on the Caribbean island gripped by an uprising against President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said international assistance was needed following nearly two weeks of violence which have left dozens dead and seen a number of towns fall into the hands of Aristide's opponents.

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"The police force is young, the number of police is insufficient," Neptune said, adding that it was the "duty of the international community" to step in to help.

Haitian ambassador to Cuba Marie Andrine Constant said from Havana that her government would prefer a police force set up by the Organisation of American States (OAS).

But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington there was "no enthusiasm" in the administration of President George W. Bush at this point for any kind of involvement in Haiti.

Discussions last week with Canada, the Caribbean Community and the OAS were about "sending in police to sustain a political settlement, not to go in and put down the current violence," Powell said.

"What we want to do right now is to find a political solution, and then there are willing nations that would come forward with a police presence to implement the political agreement that the sides come to," he said.

The White House urged Aristide to take "essential steps" to change the way his violence-wracked nation is governed as well as the security situation there.