Haiti's Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has warned of an impending coup and appealed for international help to contend with a bloody uprising that has claimed 57 lives.
"We are witnessing the coup d'etat machine in motion," Mr Neptune said, urging the international community "to show it really wants peace and stability". But the US and France expressed reluctance to send troops to put down the rebellion.
Aid agencies called for urgent international action, saying Haiti is on "the verge of a generalised civil war". The UN refugee agency met with officials in Washington to discuss how to confront a feared exodus of Haitians, though there are no immediate signs of people fleeing.
Haiti's 5,000-member police force appears unable to stem the revolt, but President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stopped short of asking for military intervention.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that "there is frankly no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or police forces to put down the violence". Mr Powell said the international community wants to see "a political solution" and only then would willing nations offer a police presence to implement such an agreement.
He spoke by telephone with French foreign minister Mr Dominique de Villepin, who called an emergency meeting in Paris yesterday to weigh the risks of sending peacekeepers and discuss how otherwise to help Haiti, an impoverished former colony that is home to 2,000 French citizens.
France has 4,000 troops in its Caribbean territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe trained in humanitarian work who could work with a UN humanitarian mission.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that the world body plans to "become much more actively engaged" in Haiti's crisis. Officials from several UN agencies went to the country on February 8th to assess the humanitarian situation and are expected to return to report at the end of the week.
The US has staged three military interventions in Haiti, the last in 1994, when it sent 20,000 troops to end a military dictatorship that had ousted Mr Aristide and halt an influx of Haitian boat people to Florida.
Mr Aristide, who was wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990, has lost support since his party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000. He is accused of using police and armed militants to stifle dissent and allowing corruption to fund lavish lifestyles for his cronies as the majority of the eight million people suffer deeper misery.
Growing protests have challenged his authority, and scores of people were killed in clashes between police, Aristide militants and anti-government demonstrators before the rebellion.
The revolt was launched on February 5th by a cadre of former Aristide supporters who have been joined by a former army death squad leader, an escaped convict and a police chief accused of fomenting a coup two years ago.
They now control roads leading to the Artibonite district, Haiti's breadbasket and home to one million people, and have cut supplies of food and fuel to northern Haiti.