PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 17: The Haitian government appealed on Tuesday for foreign help in the face of an armed revolt that has spread to another city in the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation and which threatens the rule of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Authorities were trying to re-establish control in the central city of Hinche, but Haiti needed foreign technical assistance for its beleaguered police, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune told reporters.

He did not say what kind of help was needed or where it might come from, but in Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell all but ruled out foreign police or military forces going to Haiti to quell the violence. -Reuters