OAS Pact May Restore Legitimate Rule in Haiti : Latin America: A moderate Communist leader could become prime minister within a week.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States said Wednesday that an OAS-brokered deal between Haiti’s ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Haitian political establishment may restore legitimate government to the impoverished island within a week and possibly clear the way for Aristide’s return.

The Bush Administration welcomed the report of the agreement in which Rene Theodore, a moderate Communist leader, would become prime minister, forming a new regime to succeed the military junta that overthrew Aristide, Haiti’s first freely elected president, on Sept. 30.

The appointment of Theodore, a harsh critic of Aristide, was demanded by opposition politicians who objected to Aristide’s original prime minister, Rene Preval.

The coup leaders had set the replacement of Preval, ousted from office at the same time Aristide was overthrown, as a condition for the possible return of the president.

“Within a week, perhaps, we can have a solution,” said OAS Secretary General Joao Clemente Baena Soares.

Baena reported the agreement between Aristide and the opposition leadership to the OAS permanent council in Washington. The pact was mediated by former Colombian Foreign Minister Augusto Ramirez Campo in talks at Caracas, Venezuela.

Ramirez told the Associated Press in Caracas that the agreement “should prepare the way for Aristide to return to Haiti in a peaceful manner, without revenge, without hatred . . , without blood.”

If Theodore’s appointment is confirmed by the Haitian Congress, he would form a new government that would be considered legitimate by both the OAS and the United States.

A State Department official called the deal “a good first step” and expressed hope that the dialogue that produced it ultimately would lead to Aristide’s resumption of power. The official said the Administration is not concerned about Theodore’s Communist Party affiliation.

In response to the ouster of Aristide, a liberal Roman Catholic priest, the OAS clamped an embargo on Haiti, shattering the island’s already fragile economy and intensifying its grinding poverty.

Since the coup, thousands of Haitians have fled the island in small boats.

Most of the refugees who did not perish at sea were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and taken to a tent city at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Bush Administration wants to send the Haitians home, but a federal court in Miami has temporarily blocked such repatriations.

A solution to the political crisis would permit the OAS to lift the embargo and could make possible the return of the refugees.

Meantime, Baena urged OAS member states to provide Haiti with immediate humanitarian aid.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti John Maisto responded by presenting a plan to feed the neediest in Port au Prince and two other cities beginning next week by expanding an existing program that provides U.S. food for Haitian mothers and children.

The expanded program, to be administered by private agencies, could include 500,000 more people within six months at a cost of up to $15 million, Maisto said.

As soon as a legitimate government is reinstated, Baena said, the 34-member OAS hopes to send a 250-member observer team to Haiti to monitor human rights and democratization. He said that he soon will present a budget and ask for contributions of cash, goods and personnel.