"The armed gangs, they will not go out if they know there are American Marines in Haiti," said Gerard Latortue, who took over after the Feb. 29 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "This is the only force in the world ... they will respect."

Latortue was meeting with Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who agreed that the United States should retain a small force in Haiti, both to protect U.S. personnel and to show America's commitment to a stable Haiti.

"When it comes to credibility, training, equipment, and the most important part of that is backup, the United States is the force that everyone knows you don't want to deal with," Foley said.

The United Nations, at the beginning of this month, took command from the U.S.-led multinational force in Haiti. U.S. troops have stayed past their June 1 deadline to help Haiti deal with devastating floods, but the 1,900 Americans are scheduled to leave at the end of this month.

The U.N. force eventually will reach 8,000. Latortue has said he hopes the U.N. peacekeepers will remain until an elected president takes over in February 2006.

He said the American presence could be small, but that "even if we had one of them, it is better than nothing." A sudden departure might be interpreted by Haitians "as the end of support of the American government. That could have some negative impact in the transition," Latortue said.

Latortue stressed that the Americans could be under their own command rather than be a part of the U.N. mission.

Foley said he was sending a letter to the Pentagon urging that some American military be kept on in Haiti to reinforce embassy security and protect the U.S. Corps of Engineers and others involved in rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

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