Calm Returns to Port-au-Prince as Rebels Enter City

Reacting to criticism that the administration had acted too late, Powell said on NBC's "Today" show that "what they are saying is the administration should have stepped in on the side of the government earlier. What we were saying all along is that wouldn't have been the right answer, because we needed a new political dynamic. We either needed President Aristide to leave or an agreement between all the sides to enter into a new political dynamic.

"And that," he said, "didn't happen until President Aristide left over the last 24 hours, and that created conditions for a transitional government to be appointed, and then we were ready to provide military support."

In his first statement since fleeing Haiti, Aristide told state radio in Bangui, "By toppling me, they have cut down the tree of peace, but it will grow again."

Central African Republic officials said in a statement Monday that the decision to allow Aristide in was a "humanitarian act," but they did not mention how long the former priest would stay.

Aristide resigned and flew into exile early Sunday morning.

The U.N. Security Council, meeting at the request of the United States and France, voted unanimously late Sunday to authorize an international force to serve in Haiti for no longer than three months, when it would be replaced by U.N. peacekeepers.

Aristide bowed to a three-week rebel offensive and increasing pressure from the United States and other governments to leave office. His departure came after rebels sworn to oust him had taken over more than half of the country, sparking battles that have killed more than 70 people.

Boniface Alexandre, the head of Haiti's highest court, announced at midmorning Sunday that he was taking office as interim president, as required by the constitution. "The task will not be an easy one," Alexandre said at a ceremony attended by the U.S. and French ambassadors. "Haiti is in crisis. . . . It needs all its sons and daughters. No one should take justice into their own hands."

Alexandre and a seven-member council of prominent citizens, including representatives of Aristide's party and the opposition, were to select a new prime minister and form an interim government -- part of a U.S.-backed power-sharing plan that Aristide had agreed to earlier this month in the hopes of preserving his presidency.

Guy Philippe, 36, the leader of rebels who began an armed insurrection against Aristide on Feb. 5, said on local radio Sunday afternoon that his forces would support Alexandre and cooperate with international peacekeepers.

"It is not time for fighting anymore," said Philippe, a former army officer and police chief who had vowed to capture or kill Aristide if he did not step down.

It was the second time that Aristide, 50, a former Roman Catholic priest, had been forced out of the presidency and into exile.

Aristide, whose resistance to the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship helped bring it down in 1986, became the country's first freely elected president in 1990. But a military coup forced him into exile seven months after he took office promising to lift up Haiti's poor majority. The Clinton administration sent 23,000 U.S. troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore him to power, and invested $2.3 billion to help establish a new police force and rebuild the country of 8 million.

But Aristide, reelected in November 2000, had fallen out of favor with foreign governments and international organizations for his increasingly authoritarian style. A broad-based civic opposition, accusing Aristide of ruining the economy, as well as corruption and political intimidation, had also called for his resignation.