United States Secretary of State Colin Powell has declared that the United States was not seeking "regime change" in Haiti.

Mr Powell has also made it clear that he was disappointed in the leadership of President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

When he addressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Thursday, Mr Powell recalled that instability in Haiti 11 years ago prompted tens of thousands of Haitians to flee on boats for the United States.

"We'll do everything we can not to have that situation again," Mr Powell said.

Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt and St Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told BBC Caribbean Service they agreed with Mr Powell, but they urged the United States to work alongside Caricom.

"It's a very difficult issue to address and what we have to continue to do in Caricom is to engage both sides. The Canadians and the Americans are very critical in this matter," said Mr Gonsalves.

Prime Minister Skerritt expressed the view that elections might not be the solution to the Haitian situation.

"If you have elections tomorrow in Haiti, there is no guarantee that the situation would be resolved," he said.

"If for argument's sake, the opposition wins the election, will Aristide's party rest quietly and say you have a six year term, go ahead and do it? I do not think election is the real answer to the problems.

"President Aristide has quite rightly said he has been legally elected and he should be given the opportunity to see out his term," Mr Skerritt said.

Meanwhile, a delegation from Caricom will be in Washington to hold talks with the Organisation of American States on the Haiti crisis on Friday.

The discussions include talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell as well as Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.

The Caricom delegation includes Jamaica's Foreign Affairs Minister K D Knight, UN General Assembly President Julian Hunte of St Lucia and Bahamas Foreign minister Fred Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell said the meeting was to keep all parties informed of Caricom's progress with Haiti.

"I think it's more a meeting of the minds than us telling them anything," said Mr Mitchell.

"We wish that coming out of the meeting there will be a reaffirmation of the fact that there has to be constitutional authority in Haiti. You can't countenance the violent overthrow of a country.

"On the other hand the government has certain steps that it undertook to take in Kingston," he said. "We expect that those steps will be carried out and the path would move towards a meeting of minds in Haiti as to how the process can move forward."

Mr Mitchell was confident that Caricom was in control of the situation, however, he stressed that it was not Caricom’s role to intervene.

"We are really just there to assist in getting the violence out of their politics," Mr Mitchell said.

"As for it being outside our sphere of influence, I would say clearly all the international partners have been involved in this at the start even though Caricom may be taking the lead in this particular initiative and as such, it will not be outside the scope of influence as you have the United States, Canada and the OAS involved."

In Haiti, opposition leaders expressed anger after they were stopped from holding a rally in protest against Haiti's leader in the Capital Port au Prince on Thursday.

The BBC's correspondent in Haiti, Clare Marshall said pro-Aristide supporters threw stones and burned barricades to prevent the demonstration.

The country's Prime Minister Yvon Neptune says arms and drug shipments are being funnelled into the country to support the rebels - to whom he referred to as terrorists - and blamed the international community for causing this.

"Members of the international community have allowed illegal weapons to enter Haiti and I'd advise them now to give the Haitian government the kind of assistance that it needs to restore the normal economic cooperation that existed before so that government can be in a position to tackle the terrorists," he said.

Rebels and opposition groups have been demanding the resignation of the Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide but Mr Neptune insists on the legitimacy of the government.

"The Haitian people have chosen democracy, democracy was not forced upon the people," Mr Neptune said. "When the majority decides who should represent it, that decision should be respected."