HAITI NEWS: APRIL 11 2008

Pressure grows on Haiti PM to quit.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Pressure was mounting Thursday on Haiti's Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis to resign, after a week of riots over food price hikes left at least five dead.

A group of Haitian lawmakers late Wednesday called on Alexis to make way for a new government, as the ongoing food protests rocked the Caribbean country, the poorest in the Americas.

"We have written to Mr Alexis and we have advised him to resign in the next 48 hours," senior senator Andris Riche told AFP.

"It is not an ultimatum, it is advice," Riche added, although another senator who signed the letter, Hyppolite Melius, said Alexis could be forced out if he fails to heed calls that he step aside.

Riche said a majority of Haiti's senators support the letter calling for Alexis' resignation, after meeting at a "secret location" in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The resignation demand came one day after fresh violence broke out in Haiti Wednesday, forcing UN troops to intervene as President Rene Preval appealed for calm and ordered a clampdown on the deadly protests.

Three UN peacekeepers were among the victims of the violence Wednesday, after being shot by unknown gunmen in the Carrefour neighborhood, the site of violent demonstrations, UN sources told AFP Thursday.

"The soldiers were fired upon while they were on patrol.

They did not return fire and were not able to identify the shooters," said the UN mission's spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe.

The United Nations said the peacekeepers did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

The peacekeepers have so far responded with teargas and other non-lethal weapons.

On Wednesday, for a second consecutive day, UN peacekeepers pushed back demonstrators trying to reach the presidential palace using tear gas and firing in the air.

Since the start of food riots, UN installations have been targeted by angry residents.

At least five UN vehicles have been burned, as authorities struggle to restore order.

"We are trying to control the situation.

Our police are putting out fires lit in the barricades which are blocking the roads," police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said.

"We will punish the pillagers."

For the past week, thousands have been demonstrating in the capital after a sudden jump in fuel and basic food commodity prices.

The price of rice has doubled, from 35 dollars to 70 dollars for a 120-pound sack, and gasoline has seen its third price hike in less than two months.

President Preval said in a televised address that he had ordered Haitian police and UN soldiers to "put an end to the looting," but also urged calm and said he would meet with food importers to try to lower the prices of basic goods.

He also addressed concerns about the government, which was formed in 2006 after more than two years of turmoil sparked by the departure of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

According to an unofficial count, five people have been killed by gunfire and about 40 have been wounded since the widespread unrest erupted one week ago.

Meanwhile, the US State Department announced Wednesday it had suspended the operations of its embassy until the violence subsides in the poorest country in the Americas.

"We suspended embassy operations for today because of some of the violence and demonstrations that's taken place in Haiti," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

"We fully hope and expect that over time those demonstrations will dissipate and we will get back to a situation where we can continue normal embassy operations."

Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday appealed for calm and "urges all demonstrators to refrain from any further acts of violence," his press office said.

He also deplored attacks against the personnel and facilities of the 10,000-strong UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) as well as against the Haitian government and private property.