Brazil's president pledges more troops for Haiti

Brazil's president promised on Wednesday to send 100 additional engineering troops to Haiti and called for U.N. peacekeepers to focus on development as it struggles to pacify the troubled nation.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reviewed his country's troops, the largest contingent of a 9,000-member peacekeeping force in Haiti, and pledged technical assistance for agriculture during a seven-hour visit to the Caribbean nation's capital.

Addressing hundreds of Brazilian soldiers, Silva compared the four-year-old peacekeeping mission to a soccer game that has only reached halftime.

"The second half is a time to take initiative, and the tactic of the game is to show our solidarity," he told the soldiers, who stood at attention in a drizzling rain.

More than 1,200 Brazilian soldiers have been posted to Haiti since chaos erupted in 2004 following the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They helped uproot gangs in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil, long a notorious hub for kidnappers and drug dealers.

Many Haitians praise the troops for improving security, but express frustration with the mission as impoverished communities wait for development to follow suit in a country where 80 percent of people live on less than US$2 (euro1.28) a day.

Thousands rallied against the U.N. during April riots over the soaring cost of food, shouting that peacekeepers and Haitian President Rene Preval should leave the country.

One of the seven people killed in the unrest was a U.N. police officer from Nigeria. Merchants in the clothing market where he was dragged from his car and executed shouted "Down with MINUSTAH!" after his death, referring to the mission by its French acronym.

The incident occurred shortly after Haiti's Senate dismissed the nation's prime minister _ in part, lawmakers said, for not setting a timetable for the mission's departure.

Preval warmly thanked the South American leader for his country's support during a morning meeting at the presidential palace. But he also stressed the challenges that remain, including a kidnapping wave that has averaged one abduction per day this year.