An attorney for exiled Haitian leader Mr Jean-Bertrand Aristide has asked the US attorney general to investigate what he called the kidnapping of the president and a coup in Haiti, as a first step to returning Mr Aristide to power in Port-au-Prince.
Lawyer Mr Ira Kurzban told a news conference he had written to US Attorney General Mr John Ashcroft seeking a congressional investigation and the prosecution of US officials he accused of engineering a coup d'etat in Haiti.
Mr Aristide left his revolt-torn Caribbean country on February 29th, urged to quit by the United States and France as rebels closed in on the Haitian capital.
In exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide has accused the United States of kidnapping him and forcing him into exile, which Washington has denied.