BY TIM JOHNSON

 WASHINGTON - The U.S. Embassy in Haiti shut down after today's bloody attack on the national palace in Port-au-Prince, and the White House urged Haitians to stay at home until the situation calmed down.

 "The situation in Port-au-Prince is tense," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "There are reports of roadblocks, tire burnings, shootings, mobs attacking political opposition members in offices.

 In what officials in Haiti described as a foiled coup attempt, armed commandos stormed the white national palace in downtown Port-au-Prince before dawn Monday but were repelled by police.

 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was at his personal residence several miles away, and was not harmed.

 "The White House received a report, of course, from the (U.S.) Ambassador (Brian Dean Curran), and the ambassador reported that all members of the U.S. mission in Haiti are safe and accounted for," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The ambassador requested additional police protection for the embassy and the consulate, and the government of Haiti responded quickly to that request."

 Fleischer added that the U.S. "Embassy is closed to the public today following the attack, and the United States urges all citizens in Haiti to remain in their homes
 today."

 Boucher urged the Aristide government "to take appropriate measures to restore and maintain calm."

 Boucher said the State Department has been critical of Aristide's quarrels with his political opposition, which has led to 19 months of political deadlock, but that the Bush administration supports his elected government.

 "We've looked at the leadership in Haiti as being the legitimate, elected leadership," Boucher said. "And, obviously, we stand with people who are elected against those who seek to overthrow them by force."

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