OTTAWA (CMC):

Canada is to announce a CAN$15 million (US$14.1 million) aid package to Haiti, as the country's new prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive arrives here on Tuesday for talks on attracting investment to the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, according to a report on www.cananews.net.

The funds, over a two-year period, will come from Foreign Affairs' Global Peace and Security Fund, which will target "rule of law" projects to enhance Haiti's police, corrections and border management, said Catherine Loubier, the spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.

She said Canada believes Haiti has reached "a period of stabilisation" and wants to "really work on economic development and job creation, and attract investment and trade."

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has also committed CAN$555 million (US$522.8 million) to Haiti for a five-year period ending in 2011.

Bellerive recently travelled to Miami, to attend a conference of Caribbean and Central American countries, bringing the message that Haiti was prepared to make it cheaper and easier to do business there.

"We are willing to listen; we are willing to adapt," he told reporters. "We have to lower the cost because we badly need investments."

Bellerive will travel to Montreal later in the week for meetings with the leaders of one of the largest Haitian communities in North America.