Rebels were converging on Haiti's capital today and waiting for the order to attack Port-au-Prince, according to their leader Guy Philippe.
He said their mission was to arrest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, if he did not resign, so Haiti's leader could be tried on charges ranging from corruption to murder.
"We've decided to go toward Port-au-Prince. They're on their way," Philippesaid in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city in the north, which fell onSunday. "They're taking their places. They know what to do."
Philippe said the popular rebel movement already has sleeper cells in thecapital but that they would be reinforced by fighters from rebel groups movingin from variety of locations - Ouanam in the in the north-east, Saint-Michel del'Attaye and Saint-Raphael in the north and Gonaives, a rebel base just 70 milesnorth-west of the capital.
Asked if an attack was imminent, he said: "It doesn't mean that we're goingto attack today. We're just going to take our positions and wait for the righttime."
Scouts were checking "pockets of resistance," he said. That might includethe government-held town of St Marc, on the main road from Gonaives toPort-au-Prince.