Aristide to Settle in South Africa

Haiti's ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide is to set up permanent home in South Africa, Jamaican officials said yesterday .

He would not go there until after the general election next month, because President Thabo Mbeki's government believed it would be "politically unsettling", they added. He would remain in Jamaica in the meantime.

The South Africa government denied all knowledge of the arrangement.

"I am not aware of such a statement and therefore cannot comment," Ronnie Momoepa, a spokesman for the foreign affairs ministry, said.

Earlier this month the South African government said it would consider a request from Mr Aristide for asylum but had not received one.

Mr Aristide arrived in Jamaica on March 14 to protests from the United States and Haiti's new interim government, which said his presence on the island exacerbated the tension while a multinational peacekeeping force was trying to stabilise Haiti.

Mr Aristide fled his country last month after a three-week uprising.

Haiti's first freely elected president, he claims that he was forced out of power by the US.

But US officials said they had acted at his request and probably saved his life when they put him on a plane to the Central African Republic.

Jamaican officials speaking in Basseterre, St Kitts, said Mr Aristide would not be taking up offers of permanent sanctuary from Venezuela or of temporary asylum in Nigeria.

A summit of Caribbean leaders which began in St Kitts yesterday criticised the US role in Mr Aristide's departure.

It will discuss his plans for permanent asylum during the two days of talks.