UNITED NATIONS security council members examined a draft resolution circulated by the United States and Ecuador today asking the UN to begin planning for a peacekeeping operation in Haiti.

The proposed mission would replace the US-backed Kenya-led mission now in place in the impoverished Caribbean country.

The proposed resolution says UN peacekeepers are needed to sustain the gains made by the multinational mission which has seen almost 400 Kenyan police deployed since June to help Haitian police.