Brazilian troops will stay in Haiti

Brazilian troops leading the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti will stay there for as long as the Caribbean nation requests, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday. "We are subject to the guidance of the United Nations (and) we are subject to the sovereign wishes of the Haitian people," Silva said in his weekly radio address, "Breakfast With the President."

Photo: Brazilian troops will stay in Haiti

"When they say 'We don't want you anymore,' we'll return to Brazil with the sense of mission accomplished," Silva added. Brazil has led the U.N. force in Haiti since 2004. Silva met with Haitian President-elect Rene Preval for four hours Saturday before they both traveled to Chile for the inauguration of President Michelle Bachelet.

Preval asked that Brazilian troops remain in Haiti while he prepares to govern the emisphere's poorest nation. Silva said Preval told him the U.N. troops "should leave only when he organizes the police structure in the country, because there cannot be a vacuum”, reports the AP.

N.U.