22304: (Chamberlain) Brazil says Haiti can't be Latam ``forgotten child'' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Amy Taxin

     QUITO, Ecuador, June 7 (Reuters) - Brazil, which leads a U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Haiti, called on Latin America on Monday to pay
more attention to the region's poorest nation to keep it from becoming a
"forgotten child."
     "We can't let Haiti always be a problem for the United States and
France to resolve," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters
on the sidelines of an annual meeting of foreign ministers from North and
South America.
     "They can participate, they can and should help, but we believe this
is a problem. We can't let Haiti ... be Latin America's 'forgotten child,"'
he said in Spanish.
     In its biggest foreign military deployment since World War Two, Brazil
pledged 1,200 troops to head a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Haiti as it
recovers from a revolt that forced President Jean Bertrand Aristide into
exile in February.
     Since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January 2003,
Lula has sought to establish Brazil as a regional leader by strengthening
ties among Latin American nations and with countries like Russia and China
to help offset the economic clout of the United States and European Union.
     Brazil's troops, which took over authority last week from a U.S.-led
multinational force in Haiti since March, will remain six months to
stabilize the impoverished country before elections expected next year.
     Aristide, who is now in South Africa, says he was forced out by the
United States, which Washington denies.
     Ministers attending the annual meeting, of the Organization of
American States in Ecuador, plan to discuss Haiti's political crisis.