The United States has demanded that Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide form a new Cabinet with the opposition to break a political standoff that is fueling a deadly revolt.
US Ambassador Mr James Foley met Aristide and told him to accept a plan, backed by the United States, Canada, France and other nations, to install a new prime minister who could choose Cabinet members as a way of ending the impasse.
Mr Aristide, who was restored to power in 1994 by a US invasion after a coup, took the proposal seriously but "didn't make any commitments one way or the other," said a State Department official.
The United States made its demand as part of intensified mediation this week to search for a political settlement that it hopes will calm the spiraling violence and avert having to send in US troops to restore order again.
"I think what's important is that a new government in Haiti be seen as independent and credible and inclusive. And those are, I think, the broad guidelines of the plan," State Department spokesman Mr Adam Ereli said of the demands presented to Mr Aristide yesterday.
