At least 50 people have died in armed clashes between supporters and opponents of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, according to preliminary reports issued in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.  

The death toll includes casualties which occurred since November when a political crisis began to unravel.

Northern and northwestern areas of the country have seen violent clashes for control of cities, looting and the interruption of electricity supply and public services.

Reports said that the worst clashes occurred in Cap-Haitien and Gonaives, the country's second and fourth largest cities.

Aristide, the country's first elected president, is accused of fraud in the presidential elections in 2002. His popularity plummeted amid a worsening economy and charges of corruption and poor governance.

The opposition demand Aristide's resignation but the president insists that he will hold office until his term expires in 2006.

Since they failed to reach an agreement, the international community blocked millions of dollars in aid for the impoverished nation.

Elected as president for the first time in 1990, Aristide was ousted in a military coup on Sept. 30, 1991, and forced into an exile that ended in 1994 with the support of US troops. He returned to Haiti in October 1994 and regained the presidency, becoming the first democratically elected leader in Haiti.

Haiti, a country of 8 million people on the Caribbean Sea, has suffered repeated civil conflicts and two US invasions since its independence 200 years ago.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2004)