Condi Rice learning Aristide's power-by G. Simon

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Rice Encourages Regional Aid for Haiti

NASSAU, Bahamas, Mar. 22, 2006

AP)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Tuesday to encourage a Caribbean trade group to fully restore its relationship with Haiti and help strengthen the troubled country.

The top U.S. diplomat's brief Caribbean trip also was aimed at soothing bitterness toward the United States in the region over the ouster of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Rice arrived in the Bahamas to meet with 14 foreign ministers and the secretary general of the Caribbean Community and Common Market Ministerial, a regional trade bloc known as Caricom.

Caribbean leaders have accused the United States of being an accomplice in Aristide's 2004 ouster.

To repair the strained relationship, Rice met with the Caribbean foreign ministers twice last year _ in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and at the United Nations.

A trip to the region was the next step.

"This is part of her effort to get this relationship back where it should be," said Tom Shannon, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.

"I think we're just about there."

Caricom suspended Haiti's membership after Aristide's ouster.

Last month, the group said Haiti will be allowed to rejoin if recent presidential and parliamentary elections are deemed free and fair.

Shannon said Rice hoped to identify ways in which the United States and CARICOM can work together in Haiti to restore peace and rebuild democratic institutions.

G. Simon, March 24 2006, 10:55 AM

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