US and French Marines face their first big test in Haiti yesterday with opponents and supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide calling marches that threaten renewed violence.

　　Even as an interim council meets to choose an independent prime minister, Haiti's hopes for democracy will be put to the test in the streets, where Aristide militants previously have attacked opponents with guns, machetes and stones.

　　At the starting point for yesterday's opposition march, more than 25 Marines stood around five Humvees mounted with submachine guns and a tear gas launcher at St Pierre Square in Petionville suburb.

　　Sounds of hymns and clapping wafted from churches, where families made their way on foot, children with bows in their hair and men in ties.

　　The stench of rotting flesh fouled the breeze outside the downtown state morgue yesterday, where more than 200 bodies were piled haphazardly three deep.

　　Haitian police officers were to help control yesterday's protests with Marines, who had insults thrown at them by Aristide militants who protested on Friday to demand the return of their exiled leader and jeered what they called "an occupation army." Some protesters carried pistols and machetes under their shirts, though there was no violence.

　　Outside Port-au-Prince, where US Special Forces and French legionnaires have deployed, rebels from motley groups including a former street gang and ex-soldiers of the disbanded army insist they will not surrender their weapons until the peacekeepers disarm Aristide's supporters.

　　Chief rebel leader Guy Philippe promised last Wednesday his fighters would disarm and that he would send that message across the country.

　　But rebels in the western city of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and the second city of Cap-Haitien, a northern port, told The Associated Press they were not ready to disarm.

　　"In terms of where the guns are and who we will surrender them to, that's a secret," said local rebel commander Winter Etienne, 40. "When you lay down your arms you always want to have them someplace where you can pick them up again if you need them."

　　(The Associated Press)