AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 16, SPA-- U.N. Security Council members said they would look favorably on Haiti's request for more peacekeeping police as they wrapped up a four-day visit on Saturday marked by violence in the streets of the capital. But ambassadors expressed concern about the deep divisions among Haiti's numerous political parties just months before elections planned for November. The council, charged with ensuring international peace and security, was paying its first official visit to any Latin American or Caribbean country, to assess the U.N. mission in Haiti. The visit came 14 months after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, facing an armed rebellion, fled for exile in South Africa. The council pressed Haiti's interim government to stick to the election timetable and to take a more aggressive stand against the armed gangs terrorizing parts of the country. During the council's visit, a peacekeeper from the Philippines was shot dead in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the country's most violent and impoverished slum. The killing on Thursday brought to three the number of peacekeepers killed in action in Haiti since their latest mission began in June. The next day, a joint operation mounted by U.N. soldiers from Jordan and Haitian police struck back, killing as many as 10 gunmen in Cite Soleil, and U.N. officials said the operation would continue. --More 1949 Local Time 1649 GMT
