Between 150 and 200 US Marines arrived at the airport overnight and then deployed to several key areas in the capital, including to the National Palace, where thousands of people gathered to cheer the rebel leaders who played a critical role in Jean Bertrand Aristide's departure.

They were joined shortly after dawn by the first of 130 French troops who were sent from Martinique, less than 12 hours after the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of a multinational stabilization force to restore order in Haiti.

A small number of Canadian special forces, who had secured Toussaint Louverture International Airport on Sunday for the evacuation of Canadian citizens, remained at their posts.

"US forces have been sent to secure key sites in the capital for the purpose of establishing peace and security and help promote the constitutional and political process," said Colonel Dave Berger, who commands the contingent from the 3rd Batallion of the 8th Marines.

"We're here to create conditions for the anticipated arrival of a UN multinational force," he said.

But he stressed the Marines would not be patroling the streets of the capital and that their main priority was to ensure the security of US nationals.

"We are not a police force," said Berger, whose contingent of Marines includes several Haitian-Americans and some 15-20 troops who served in Haiti in 1994, when the United States intervened to restore Aristide to power after a 1991 coup.

Berger and the commander of the French contingent shook hands as the two countries, still recovering from divisions over the war in Iraq, joined forces to prepare for the arrival of the UN operation.

Lieutenant Colonel Louis Acacio of the French Army of the Antilles laughed when asked if he expected tension with the Americans. "It won't be a problem," he said.

Responding to a similar question about Franco-US cooperation in Haiti, Berger smiled and said: "It will be very good, very good."

The French troops, who were to station themselves initially at the French embassy and ambassador's residence, stressed their main task was to protect their citizens in Haiti pending the arrival of a multinational force put together by the United Nations.

France and the United States had pressed Aristide, a shantytown priest turned populist leader, to resign for the good of the country step down after failing to convince the opposition to accept a power-sharing deal.

About 50 US Marines had been protecting the US embassy since last week, and about 10 of the newcomers were at the presidential palace, watching as rebel leaders Guy Philippe and Jodel Louis Chamblain entered the capital in a motorcade with dozens of heavily armed men.

Berger said said Marines had tried to get to the city's main port, the scene of wild looting for the past few days.

"They went down to look at it but because of looting and stuff it was very hard to go in there so we've got to do more coordination to get in there to look at how to secure it," he said.

Berger said he did not expect US troops to face hostility despite Sunday's rampage of looting, killing and arson by pro-Aristide gangs after the president's resignation and departure that marked the culmination of a four-year political crisis exacerbated by an insurgency which saw the rebels take control of more than half the country in less than a month.

"We did not expect to come off the aircraft and fight our way to the terminal," said Berger, noting that Haitian police had returned to the streets and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the orders of interim leader Boniface Alexandre, the supreme court chief.

But Berger warned that Aristide supporters or rebels "who interfere with our mission we'll handle in an appropriate way and with appropriate force."

A convoy of US embassy vehicles, protected by Marines and armed diplomatic security agents was forced to reverse course in the middle of one of the capital's many slums because of an impassable roadblock made up of boulders.

Minutes earlier, a team of AFP journalists in the same area were fired on by a group of looters attempting to steal a car.

WAR.WIRE