UN votes to keep troops in Haiti six more months

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 (Reuters) The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti for an additional six months at about its current size to help keep violence in check and restore stability.

A resolution drafted by Argentina and adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council authorized the deployment of up to 7,200 troops and as many as 1,951 international police officers, roughly in line with the recommendations of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

But while Annan had called for a 12-month extension of the mission's mandate, the United States insisted on just a six-month renewal, council diplomats said. Without council action, the mandate would have expired at the end of the day.

Annan, who visited Haiti earlier this month, had argued that it would take at least a year to make progress in improving the legal system and local and national governance.

As a compromise, the resolution stated the council's ''intention to renew for further periods.'' The council had previously imposed a ceiling of 7,500 on mission troop levels and capped the number of police at 1,897.

The resolution also called for 16 corrections officers to be sent to Haiti to help upgrade its prison system.

The UN mission was sent into Haiti in June 2004 to support an interim government installed after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile under international pressure.

After new President Rene Preval took office in May, the level of violence declined only to spike again in July, Annan said in a report sent to the council earlier this month.

A thriving illegal trade in drugs and arms, gang violence and kidnappings was likely to remain a problem for some time, requiring continued international aid, his report said.

Annan has said that previous international aid missions in Haiti failed because they ended before reforms could take hold.

REUTERS PDS PM0047