23 February 2004	Monday	02 Muharram 1425

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 22: Armed rebels on Sunday took control of Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, after first seizing the local airport, witnesses said.

Insurgents said the rebels swept into the airport where they seized an aircraft on the tarmac. There was no immediate word on any casualties. Witnesses said the men arrived in vehicles from rebel-held Trou-de-Nord and took control of an aircraft belonging to Air Tropical.

Cap-Haitien's population is about one million. At least 57 people have been killed since rebels demanding that President Jean Bertrand Aristide resign took the northwestern town of Gonaives on February 5.

Dozens of Aristide's political foes and journalists have also been wounded, some seriously, since Lavalas family gangs have boosted their activities since January.

A spokesman for the armed insurgents, Winter Etienne, had said on Friday that the rebels intended to take Cap-Haitien and Saint-Marc this weekend. Saint-Marc, with 160,000 residents, lies between the capital and Gonaives, the country's fourth-largest city.

Aristide, who has repeatedly rejected calls for his resignation, on Saturday embraced an internationally backed power-sharing plan, although it calls for the creation of a new, independent government and post of prime minister to whom he would have to cede major powers. -AFP