By REUTERS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 6 — President Jean-Bertrand Aristide denied today that his country had become a haven for drug traffickers and charged that the recent suspension of American travel visas for several Haitian officials was not based on concrete evidence.

American officials announced on Friday that Haiti — along with Myanmar and Guatemala — had failed to take sufficient actions to fight drug trafficking in the past year. It was the second time that Haiti had been so designated in as many years.

"Haiti is not guilty of these charges. We are a poor country and we feel victimized by these actions," Aristide told reporters after meeting David Lee, chief of the special mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) to Haiti. "We are a poor country and we feel victimized by these actions,"

"The U.S. Coast Guard patrolling our waters sees boat people, but they never see boats transporting drugs."

In its annual report on the global drug trade last year, the United States said Haiti was a major transit stop for South American drug cartels shipping illegal narcotics to lucrative North American and European markets.

It described the poor Caribbean nation as a "path of minimal resistance" for drug traffickers because of weak democratic institutions, corrupt officials and a fledgling police force.

Following the announcement on Friday, Haiti's most widely read paper, Le Nouvelliste, published a list of officials whose visas were allegedly revoked by the United States for involvement in drug trafficking. Many of those named were lawmakers and high-ranking officials in the Haitian National Police.

Some of those mentioned, including Clifford Larose, director of Haiti's prisons, have since held news conferences confirming the revocation of their visas but denying their involvement in the drug trade.

Citing privacy laws, the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

Mr. Aristide was first elected to the presidency in this nation of eight million in 1990, but ousted in a coup months later. American troops helped restore him to power in 1994.

Since his re-election in November 2000, he has been locked in a dispute with opposition politicians over May 2000 elections that observers said were rigged in his favor.