By MICHAEL NORTON
             Associated Press

             PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Mountains of bird droppings glistening on the rocks
             caught Capt. Peter Duncan's eye. Inspired, he claimed the stony outcrop off Haiti
             for the United States.

             That was 141 years ago, when guano, as the droppings are politely called, was a
             popular fertilizer. Guano mining has stopped, but a low-level dispute has simmered
             ever since.

             Now, the quest for biodiversity has made the uninhabited island of Navassa,
             declared by U.S. scientists to be ``a marvel of biological treasures,'' fashionable
             again.

             An expedition, organized by the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington,
             last month announced the discovery of unique animal and plant species on the
             two-square-mile island.

             That sparked a response from Haiti, which has claimed the Isle de Navase, 40
             miles off its southwestern peninsula, since its independence from France in 1804.

             Prominent Haitian scientists immediately formed the Navassa Island Defense
             Group. ``Navassa island belongs to Haiti. It is only fair that Haitian scientists be
             included in discovery expeditions,'' said oceanographer Ernst Wilson, a group
             member.

             Expedition planned

             The scientists plan an expedition this month to the island. Haiti's Ministry of
             Environment also announced an expedition.

             Haitian sensibilities were further injured by reports that U.S. Interior Secretary
             Bruce Babbitt had warned that the U.S. Coast Guard would shoot at any boats
             approaching the island.

             Babbitt actually said that as a joke during a news conference in Washington,
             where the discoveries were announced. His lighthearted threat was aimed at
             possible U.S. ecotourists or divers eager to explore Navassa's flourishing coral
             reefs.

             Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1504. But interest came after
             phosphate- and nitrate-rich bird droppings were prized as fertilizer and used to
             make gunpowder in the 19th Century.

             In 1856, Congress passed the U.S. Guano Act, which allowed any uninhabited,
             guano-rich island to be claimed as a U.S. territory. Duncan did just that a year
             later, during the reign of Emperor Faustin Soulouque.

             Soulouque sent an expedition to Navassa in 1858 to inform the guano-mining
             company that he objected to the U.S. claim. Haiti sent an official protest to
             Washington, which supported the U.S. company.

             In 1956, a resolution proposing that Haiti's claim to Navassa be respected was
             presented to the U.S. Congress.

             Haiti undeterred

             That went nowhere, but Haiti was undeterred. In 1989, the former military
             government dispatched radio amateurs there in an army helicopter. They planted a
             Haitian flag in the ground and erected a pillar asserting Haitian sovereignty. Then,
             for a couple of hours, they broadcast messages from ``Radio Free Navassa.''

             On Sept. 8, the Navassa Island Defense Group wrote to U.S. Ambassador
             Timothy Michel Carney, inquiring on what grounds the United States claimed
             Navassa.

             Meanwhile, the U.S. scientists plan more visits to the disputed island. Their
             two-week expedition last month, the first by scientists in three decades, yielded the
             discovery of 250 animal and plants species.

             They found 15 endemic species, including two lizards, Cyclura nigerrima and
             Leicocephlus erimitus, previously thought to be extinct.

             ``We never dreamed that on a single visit the team would so greatly increase our
             knowledge of the number of species,'' said Roger McManus, president of the
             center. ``Uninhabited islands like Navassa are the very best chance we have to
             understand and protect the diversity of life in the Caribbean.''