By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
 
ASHINGTON, March 3 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his top aide for Latin America faced fierce questioning on Wednesday from lawmakers who rejected the administration's claims that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti had resigned of his own free will.

At a hearing dominated by Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Roger F. Noriega, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was denounced as insolent and misguided, and faced derisive laughter, as he testified that the United States had not forced Mr. Aristide from office.

"We did not support the violent overthrow of that man," Mr. Noriega told members of a House international relations subcommittee.

Mr. Aristide, who was flown into exile in the Central African Republic aboard an American plane on Sunday, has said he was kidnapped by American officials determined to oust him. Angry Democrats excoriated the administration for effectively carrying out a coup d'état. In the hearing, lawmakers said Mr. Aristide had been coerced into resigning.

"He was forced out," said Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, who spoke with Mr. Aristide by phone on Wednesday. "He told me that he did not go of his own will."

In separate testimony, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell dismissed the notion that Mr. Aristide had been forced out, instead characterizing him as a flawed leader who had not governed democratically.

"But having said that, we tried to help him," Mr. Powell said. "We tried to get him into a process with the opposition. But by the time this thing came to a crisis, the opposition had been so disappointed and so resentful and untrusting of President Aristide's efforts over the years that we couldn't get that together."

Mr. Noriega acknowledged that the administration had told Mr. Aristide that it could not guarantee his safety as rebels made a final push toward the Haitian capital. He defended the decision not to "prop him up" in office.

"We do not have an obligation to put American lives at risk to save every government that might ask for help," said Mr. Noriega, who called the deposed president erratic and unreliable. "In the case of Haiti it was a difficult decision, but I think it was the right one."

Mr. Noriega confirmed that an American diplomat had sought a letter of resignation from Mr. Aristide before giving him and his relatives safe passage out of Haiti on Sunday morning. The reason, Mr. Noriega said, was to establish a "sustainable, political" solution after Mr. Aristide's departure.

Representative Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat, asked Mr. Noriega if the Bush administration would have rescued Mr. Aristide without a letter of resignation.

"Probably, yes," Mr. Noriega replied. He noted that Mr. Aristide's wife, Mildred Trouillot, is an American citizen.

Mr. Rangel commented that under a threat to his life, Mr. Aristide had little choice but to sign a resignation letter. "I would have signed one too," Mr. Rangel said.

Mr. Noriega also confirmed reports that Mr. Aristide had taken off from Haiti without a set destination in mind. In fact, Mr. Noriega said, he did not learn that the Central African Republic would be his place of temporary refuge until about 20 minutes before he landed.

The Bush administration, working with leaders of the Caribbean Community, is trying to set up a new government in Haiti with representatives from Mr. Aristide's party, Lavalas, and members of the political opposition. The chief justice of the Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, is acting as interim president.

The United States expects to have a full contingent of 1,500 marines in Haiti by the end of the week, said Raul Duany, a spokesman for the United States Southern Command.

Along with about 600 French troops on the ground, diplomats said Chile had 160 in place. The forces are authorized by the United Nations to stay three months before being replaced by an international civilian police force.

That effort faced new trouble on Wednesday as the 15-nation Caribbean Community announced that it would not take part in an international peacekeeping force and called for an investigation of Mr. Aristide's charge that he had been forced out by the United States.

Republicans rallied to the administration's defense on Wednesday, saying Mr. Aristide had run a corrupt, drug-dealing government that persecuted his enemies. They said the Bush administration had saved his life.