Haitian rebels ready to take capital and capture Aristide

REBELS who have overrun half of Haiti were converging on the capital, Port-au-Prince, yesterday and waiting for the order to attack, said 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," Philippe said in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, in the north, which fell on Sunday.

"They're taking their places. They know what to do."

Philippe said the popular rebel movement already has sleeper cells in the capital but they would be reinforced by fighters from rebel groups moving in from a variety of locations.

These included Ouanam in the north-east, Saint-Michel de l'Attaye and Saint-Raphael in the north and Gonaives, a rebel base just 70 miles north-west of the capital.

Asked if an attack was imminent, he said: "It doesn't mean that we're going to attack today. We're just going to take our positions and wait for the right time."

Scouts were checking "pockets of resistance," he said. That might include the government-held town of St Marc, on the main road from Gonaives to Port-au-Prince.

"It won't take a lot of days. We don't have all our lives to wait for what a dictator is going to do," Philippe said. "They're awaiting the order."

Their mission was to head for the National Palace, the presidential seat, and Aristide's private residence in Tabarre, on the outskirts of the capital, to "arrest Aristide, just arrest him".

"I don't want him to die. It would be too easy. He has to pay for what he has done to the Haitian people," Philippe said.

Philippe had said he was going to give Aristide a chance to step down, as international pressure mounted for politicians to sign up to a US backed peace plan. Aristide agreed but his political rivals refused, saying he must step down for any peace to come to Haiti.

"We saw there was no hope for peace," Philippe said. "We spent a week waiting for this peace to come. We can't stay waiting for him to decide while his people are killing people ... Every day, innocent people are being killed, houses are being burned."

In Port-au-Prince today businesses bolted doors shut and motorists queued for precious petrol.

Most of the barricades erected by militant supporters of Aristide were removed and streets were empty.

Foreigners fled the country on packed flights amid isolated looting. The UN Security Council was to meet today and President George Bush said the US is encouraging the international community to provide a strong "security presence".