Haiti leaders delay peace response
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A woman walks pass a barricade set by Aristide supporters in Port-au-Prince.
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CNN's Lucia Newman on the arrival of U.S. Marines in the Haitian capital.
Anti-government rebels move into Haiti's second-largest city.
Demonstrators are demanding that Aristide step down.
Aristide is vowing to fight to the end.
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SAINT-MARC, Haiti -- Opposition leaders in Haiti have delayed a decision on whether to back a U.S.-supported peace plan for Haiti, and are to meet Wednesday to draw up a counterproposal.
The opponents, who were to respond to the plan by 5 p.m. Tuesday local time (10 p.m. GMT), have not supported the international proposal because it does not require President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down.
Under the plan, a new government and prime minister would be appointed to share power with Aristide.
In addition, U.S. presidential candidate and social activist Al Sharpton will travel to Haiti in an attempt to broker the crisis.
Sharpton told CNN's Elise Labott that the Haitian-American community asked him to make the trip to "end the bloodshed."
"Maybe I can make a case to Aristide that he should step aside. I don't know."
As turmoil ruled in the north, an uneasy calm settled over the Haitian capital, where residents and officials alike waited to see if rebels -- not the same group as the opponents -- would make good on their vows to march on the capital, Port-au-Prince, and forcibly remove the president.
President Aristide appealed Tuesday for the world to come to Haiti's aid, warning that thousands of deaths and a wave of boat people could result from political chaos, The Associated Press reports.
"Should those killers come to Port-au-Prince, you may have thousands of people who may be killed," Aristide said at a news conference. "We need the presence of the international community as soon as possible."
Asked if he was calling for a military intervention, Aristide said he wanted the international community to strengthen Haiti's police force, under an old agreement with the Organization of American States, according the AP.
Ten years ago, Washington sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to end a dictatorship in Haiti, restore Aristide and halt an exodus to Florida.
But the Bush administration has made clear it will not commit a large number of troops this time.
Meanwhile, World Food Program officials said looting has become widespread in the rebel-held north, including a grain warehouse robbed of enough grain to feed nearly 300,000 people.
Anticipating the bloodbath that officials predicted if political opposition leaders rejected the power-sharing proposal -- or if the rebels storm Port-au-Prince under any circumstances -- the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders have begun to send aid workers to the tiny nation on the western end of the island of Hispaniola.
The opposition proposed a timeline that called for Aristide to resign next month, but the international team rejected that proposal and amended their own to include a "statement of guarantors" from the countries in the delegation," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The political opposition's final choice must also consider the rebels, who have vowed they will not stop fighting until Aristide is gone, the opposition leaders said.
"The rebels have made it very clear, once he leaves they won't fight anymore and they will give back their weapons," said opposition leader Hans Tippenhauer.
"We believe them because we are fighting for the same cause, which is Mr. Aristide has to leave, and we want to believe that would be easier to talk to them once he leaves the country."
Another opposition leader, Andres Apaid, told reporters that Aristide's resignation is "a critical element."
"We are not seeing any mechanisms from the international community that addresses this efficiently," he said.
The rebels, who took over Cap-Haitien, the country's second largest city, on Sunday have shown no signs of marching toward Port-au-Prince so far.
Forces loyal to Aristide have barricaded the road to Saint-Marc, the last stretch of road the rebels would travel before reaching the capital, officials said.
Officials said that police were waiting at Saint-Marc if the rebels arrive.
But it was unclear how much of Haiti's ill-equipped, poorly trained police force remained. Many are reported to have gone into hiding or fled to neighboring Dominican Republic.
The heavily armed rebels are led by former members of Haiti's now-disbanded army.
In Cap-Haitien, they seized the international airport, torched the police station, released prisoners and broke into an arms depot.
An undetermined number of people were killed, witnesses said.
Aristide has faced criticism since an election in 2000 that observers called fraudulent. Opposition parties accuse his supporters of using violence to intimidate them.
He has said repeatedly that he will not willingly step aside until his term of office expires in 2006.
Nearly 40,000 Haitians fled the country after a 1991 coup that ousted Aristide, who was restored to power in 1994 amid the threat of U.S. military intervention.
-- CNN Correspondents Lucia Newman and Elise Labott contributed to this report.
