MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN Security Council to meet in Haiti

The UN Security Council will hold an extraordinary meeting in Port-au-Prince to discuss the Haitian political and security crisis, China's ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, announced Monday.

The mission will take place between April 13 and April 16, said Wang, who presides over the council this month.

"We feel it is time that the Security Council send a mission on the ground to assess the situation in Haiti," said Wang.

The Port-au-Prince meeting will be attended by Security Council members as well as representatives from the UN Economic and Social Council, Wang said.

"We'll assess the security situation, the political situation, as well as the economic and social side, to see how the United Nations can help Haiti," said Wang.

The United Nations has maintained a multinational peacekeeping force of more than 7,000 soldiers and police in Haiti since last year, following the coup that ousted former president Jean Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.

However, violent incidents have mounted in the country in recent weeks, often involving armed supporters of Aristide opposed to the current government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.

The decision to hold the meeting in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, was made at the request of Argentina and Brazil, according to Wang.

Brazil currently commands the peacekeeping force, which includes 1,200 Brazilians.

In late March the UN secretary general's special representative for Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes of Chile, called for additional financial support for disarming former Haitian soldiers and prepare for national elections at the end of the year.

Valdes said the disarmament program alone needs 20 million dollars, but only has four million dollars.

The Security Council very rarely meets outside of New York. Last November the council met in Nairobi to discuss the crisis in Sudan.