US president George Bush will be committed during his second term in office to the “liberation of Cuba” by extending moral and political support to the communist nation’s people, a top State Department official says.

HAITI'S rebels raised the stakes in the country's crisis by declaring themselves in control of security, refusing to disarm and vowing to arrest Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Rebels began patrolling the streets of the Haitian capital as rebel leader Guy Philippe declared himself the new chief of the military and threatened to arrest the country’s prime minister.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide agreed to a US-driven peace plan today to head a government with political opponents, saying rebels will be disarmed and a new government will hold elections.

Militants loyal to Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have attacked protesters demanding he resign with barrages of shotgun fire, stones and bottles.