Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune yesterday accused opposition groups of trying to mount a coup to overthrow the government as police gave up an attempt to reclaim control of the coastal city of Gonaives.

Violence was reported in several cities throughout the country, which has been troubled by shootings and anti-government protests.

"This violence is connected to a coup attempt," Neptune said in a television interview.

"If the opposition wants to participate in the construction of a law-abiding state, it should play a role in stopping the violence," Neptune said.

He called on the opposition to participate in helping the country hold elections.

"It's only through elections that the crisis can be resolved," he continued.

Parliamentary elections failed last year when no electoral body was set up to oversee the polls, leaving the nation without a functioning legislature.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide now rules by decree, although he has promised elections within six months.

The opposition dismissed his proposal as inadequate.

Neptune asked Haitians to report attacks on police to allow authorities to restore peace in the impoverished nation.

Police left Gonaives yesterday after failing to reclaim control, which it lost on Thursday to the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front (RARF).

Police stations were burned down in several cities by anti-government groups asking for Aristide's resignation.

Barricades were set ablaze in several cities, including the capital Port-au-Prince, by pro-Aristide groups.

Aristide, a former Catholic priest, was elected in 2000 in elections observers deemed flawed.

He has insisted that he will hold office until his term ends in 2006.

In a press release, police said they made a "strategic withdrawal" from Gonaives, one day after trying to rip control from RARF, which claims control of the country's fourth-largest with 200 000 people.

The rebels destroyed bridges and dug trenches to stop police from returning to the city, according to radio stations.

Television images showed corpses lying in the city's roads while men armed with guns, improvised maces and machettes stood on cars and roamed the streets.

More than 60 people have died in Gonaives since September and more than 100 have been injured.

Witnesses and radio stations said three to seven policemen were killed Saturday in an attempt to reclaim the city.

Winter Etienne, a rebel leader, said 14 officers were killed, a figure that could not be independently confirmed.

The rebel group's attack on a police station on Thursday claimed 11 lives and injured 20 people.

Media reports said burning barricades had been erected in Cap Haitien and that the police station in Grand-Goave, west of the capital, had been burned down after an attack by opponents of Aristide.

Evans Paul, a leader of the political opposition, urged police not to fight the population, who he said shared the rebels' desire to force Aristide to step down.

On Saturday in Saint-Marc, located on the road between the capital and Gonaives, witnesses said an opposition group called Ramicos took over the police station and that prisoners from a nearby jail were freed. – Sapa-AFP.