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Former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide, who fled his country amid an armed uprising against him, left Jamaica yesterday for exile in South Africa, which he called his "temporary home" until he returns to Haiti.

An Aristide spokesman said the former Haitian leader left Jamaica at 17:45 GMT with his wife and two daughters in a private jet supplied by the South African government of President Thabo Mbeki.

"After two visits to South Africa, it will now be our temporary home until we are back in Haiti," Aristide told reporters shortly before leaving Jamaica.

Aristide said he remained in "deep communion" with the Haitian people and that he stood in "solidarity" with all those affected by the heavy floods that have killed almost 1 000 people during the last week.

In mid-March, Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson invited Aristide to his Caribbean island country for a 10-week visit with his two daughters, who traveled there from the US to meet him. Aristide had voiced his desire to stay in South Africa since his ouster.

Aristide left his own country amid mounting disaffection over his increasingly totalitarian methods, cronyism, corruption and failure to make a dent in the calamitous economic problems facing Haiti's eight-million people.

But the former priest was set to receive a red-carpet welcome at the Johannesburg International Airport on Monday, where the South African government said Mbeki would "officially receive and welcome" him.

Aristide, who will live in Pretoria, will hold a press conference with Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma tomorrow, the statement said.

In Haiti, Aristide's political opponents welcomed his exile from the Caribbean.

"The fact that he is getting away from Haiti's coast is a good thing, since he was using the Jamaican territory to destabilise the democratic transition process," Micha Gaillard, leader of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, told AFP.

"We hope the South African government will make Jean Bertrand Aristide understand that its hospitality does not represent support to block Haiti's development," Gaillard said.

Aristide, 50, left power on February 29 and spent two weeks in the Central African Republic, where he said he had been pushed from power by the US with French backing. Washington and Paris strongly denied the claims.

In March, South Africa called for a United Nations-led probe into the circumstances leading to Aristide's departure.

Aristide told reporters here "the full answer" surrounding his controversial departure will be detailed in an upcoming book that "is almost ready."

The former priest was first elected in 1990. He was ousted in a coup in 1991 only to return to power with US military backing in 1994.

He stepped down after a five-year term, but ran again in 2000.

He claimed victory, but observers said the elections were flawed and opposition parties claim his Lavalas party rigged the vote.

Aristide's invitation to South Africa has been controversial.

The government has attracted flak from opposition parties who have spoken out against allowing Aristide into South Africa.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance party has cast doubt over his democratic credentials and argued that taxpayers should not have to foot the bill to support him.

"The South African government has still not explained under what legal authority Aristide is being granted entry into our country," Douglas Gibson, foreign affairs spokesman for the party, said yesterday.

“Aristide should go home," he added. - Sapa-AFP

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