Kerry: I'd have sent Aristide US troops:

John Kerry says he would have sent troops to protect the democratically elected president of Haiti who fled just over a week ago.

Senator Kerry said he would have been prepared to use the US military, unilaterally if necessary - a swipe at President George W.Bush's claim that under the Democrats the US would need the world's permission to use its troops.

He previously has accused the White House of effectively backing Haiti's rebels in their attempt to force out President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but he added yesterday that the US has sent a 'terrible message' to democracies in its own region.

'Look, Aristide was no picnic and did a lot of things wrong,' Senator Kerry told The New York Times in his first foreign policy interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee last week.

'But we had understandings in the region about the right of a democratic regime to ask for help. And we contravened all of that.' "