Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled his chaotic Caribbean country on Sunday, landed in the capital of the Central African Republic yesterday.

The minister who received Aristide at the main Mpoko airport in Bangui, said it was not clear whether the Haitian leader was on a stopover to another country or would seek refuge in the Central African Republic.

?Right now we cannot say whether he?ll stay or leave. That will be known after consultations,? Communications Minister Parfait Mbaye told Reuters.

Aristide, once adored by Haiti?s legions of poor as a champion of democracy but increasingly at odds with political opponents, fled a 24-day armed revolt on Sunday, escorted to Port-au-Prince airport at daybreak by US guards.

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in Johannesburg that his country, which has backed Aristide, would consider a request for political asylum.

?If and when formal requests come, we will consider any request,? Pahad said. ?If and when this happens the cabinet will have to take a decision.?

Pahad said South Africa would discuss any request with the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which has been at the forefront of efforts to find a solution to Haiti?s crisis, as well as with other countries including the United States and France.

Central Africa?s Mbaye said Aristide, who landed in Bangui with his wife, had been taken to the presidential palace.

The minister said Central African Republic?s leader Francois Bozize, a former army chief who seized power last year, had accepted a request by Gabon?s President Omar Bongo to allow Aristide into his impoverished country.

During the 1970s and 1980s, when Haiti was ruled by Jean-Claude ?Baby Doc? Duvalier, scores of Haitians sought refuge in the Central African Republic.

Several hundred US Marines

Just minutes after the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of a multinational force, the first of several hundred Marines ordered in by US President George W. Bush arrived to prevent armed insurgents from making a grab for power. ?This is the beginning of a new chapter in the country?s history,? Bush said.

Aristide said he resigned to avert ?a bloodbath.? He was escorted to the airport by heavily armed US guards and flew off at daybreak to neighboring Dominican Republic, possibly en-route to an African country.

As word of his departure spread, mayhem gripped the ramshackle capital of 2 million people ? a quarter of Haiti?s impoverished population.

Looters ransacked stores, murderers and hard-core criminals escaped from prisons, and the first rebels to arrive went on a wild ride around town in pickup trucks, shot it out with an unseen gunman and hugged the people they came to liberate.

Bush ordered the deployment of US Marines to serve as the vanguard of a multinational security force.

It was the third major deployment of US troops to Haiti in the past century, the last of which occurred just 10 years ago when President Bill Clinton sent 20,000 Marines to restore Aristide to power after he had been ousted in a coup.

More than 120 French troops were due to arrive yesterday, and Canada, which has about 50 troops in the country, said it could send in another 100 on short notice. Brazil is also expected to contribute to the force, which was given an initial mandate of three months.

Aristide, 50, whose battle to end decades of dictatorship once made him a hero of Haitian democracy but has since faced accusations of corruption and political violence, left after an uprising that began 24 days ago crept close to Port-au-Prince.

The United States, which along with former colonial power France had called on Aristide to quit to help bring an end to the crisis in the poorest country in the Americas, urged rebels to lay down their arms.

The rebels promised to cooperate and stop fighting. Guy Philippe, an ex-police chief accused of fomenting earlier coup attempts, and who joined the revolt, told CNN?s ?Late Edition? program he welcomed the Marines. ?We are waiting for them. We need them,? Philippe said. ?They will have full cooperation.?

The rebellion, which capped months of simmering political tensions, began on February 5 in the western city of Gonaives, led by a street gang that once supported Aristide.

It spread over the north of the country and killed more than 70 people, including at least five men found dead in Port-au-Prince on Sunday as opponents of the president hunted down his dreaded ?chimeres? ? street toughs armed by Aristide to enforce his will in the country?s sprawling slums.

The departure of Aristide, who had been insisting that Haiti?s 32 coups in 200 years of independence would not culminate in his own ouster, and that he would serve out his second term until 2006, was arranged by US officials.

Within hours, Haitian Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre was named to replace him as laid out in the constitution.

The Caribbean Community, which has been at the forefront of efforts to broker peace, deplored Aristide?s ?removal? and questioned the constitutionality of his replacement by Alexandre because there was no parliament to approve it.

?We are bound to question whether his resignation was truly voluntary, as it comes after the capture of sections of Haiti by armed insurgents and the failure of the international community to provide the requisite support,» said Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, chairman of the group.

Resignation ?to avoid bloodshed?

A US State Department official said an African country, which he declined to name, had agreed to give asylum to Aristide. NBC television news reported that Aristide may end up in the Central African Republic.

Aristide initially traveled to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and then to the eastern Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

Several Aristide supporters escaped to the Dominican Republic. In a statement read by Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Aristide said, ?the constitution should not sink in the blood of the Haitian people.?

?That?s why, if ... my resignation is the decision that can avoid a bloodbath, I consent to leave with hope there will be life, not death,? Aristide said in the statement.

Rebel soldiers in Cap-Haitien, the rebel stronghold in the north overrun last weekend, celebrated in the streets.

A band of about 50 rebels swooped into Port-au-Prince. Clad in bullet-proof vests and camouflage uniforms, they drove sport utility vehicles and pickups, some bearing signs in the windows that said ?Liberation Front, Haitian Armed Forces.?

Armed bands of ?chimeres? roamed the city in pickup trucks, armed with shotguns and other weapons.

Police guarding Haiti?s main prison near the National Palace ran away. About 2,000 inmates including murderers and other hard-core criminals melted into the streets.

Jim Loney

Alistair Scrutton