PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said yesterday that he stands ready to serve his people, but will only contest fresh elections if they are free and fair - a scenario he considers unlikely.

Aristide also offered conciliatory words to the United States and France, saying he is open to dialogue with the countries he accuses of forcing him from power.

"We are not eager to have power for power's (sake)," he said at his first news conference since beginning his South African exile last week. "If we can serve while we are here, we will continue to serve. If we can serve when we will be back, we will continue to serve."

Aristide was ousted from Haiti on February 29 as rebels approached the capital. He was flown aboard a US-supplied jet to the Central African Republic, where he accused the United States and France of conspiring in the plot to unseat him - charges both countries deny.

"We are eager to see the relationship between the United States, the French and we Haitians become normalised," Aristide said yesterday. "We do not want any kind of confrontation."

Aristide and his wife, Mildred, flew to Jamaica on March 15 to reunite with their two young daughters. But his return to the Caribbean angered Haiti's current US-backed interim government, which worried that his presence would further destabilise Haiti, just 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of Jamaica.

Upon the request of the 15-member Caribbean Community and the African Union, South Africa agreed to provide with Aristide temporary asylum until it is safe for him to return home. He arrived with his family on May 31 and is living at an unidentified government residence in Gauteng province.

Before leaving Jamaica, Aristide insisted he was still Haiti's democratically elected president and vowed to return.

He struck a more conciliatory note yesterday, saying he was ready to work with the country's current authorities and the United Nations to help restore order and democracy in his troubled homeland.

"Dialogue can be one of the best ways to pave the way for my return .and to continue working with the Haitian people and the international community to make democracy flourish," he said.

While he said the "huge majority" of Haitians were pressing for his return, he pledged not participate in "any kind of political activities in order to be back soon in bad conditions."
"It has to be in good conditions," he said.

Flanked by his wife and South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Aristide also indicated he was unlikely to run in elections promised next year.

"Once we have fair, free, democratic elections, I will embrace that. But if we look at the reality now in Haiti, I don't see how could they have fair, free, democratic elections," he said. "It is fear that rules."

Aristide, a slum priest elected on promises to the poor, began losing support shortly after he won a second term and his party swept disputed legislative races in 2000. International donors suspended millions of dollars in aid, worsening the poverty in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and angering the people who once supported Aristide.

He has kept a low profile since arriving in South Africa. On Sunday, he delivered a sermon at a church in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra. But he said he plans to spend most of his time in exile working on his memoirs.

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