Aristide sworn in as Haiti president

Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been sworn in for a second term as Haiti's president.

Mr Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, took the oath of office in front of Parliament with his hand on a Bible.

Hundreds of supporters filled the streets outside the Legislative Palace.

But Mr Aristide's return is being shunned by the international community, which was angered by the handling of legislative and local elections.

His return is also challenged by Haiti's opposition parties, which protested fraud in the May vote and have announced their own provisional president to head an alternative government.

In the vote, Mr Aristide's Lavalas Family party won more than 80% of local and parliamentary seats.

The Organization of American States said 10 Senate seats won by Aristide candidates should have gone to a second-round vote, and some countries threatened to withhold aid.

On Tuesday, the 15-party opposition alliance Convergence named former presidential candidate Gerard Gourgue, 75, as the country's provisional president in an alternative government.

It also offered Mr Aristide a seat on a three-member presidential council.

Mr Aristide's party chose to hold the inauguration on February 7, a national holiday and the day that the dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was forced from power in 1986.