PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Rebels rolled into the capital yesterday and were met by hundreds of residents dancing in the streets and cheering the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, while US Marines and French troops secured key sites.

People clapped and waved as they yelled “Good job!” and called out the name of key rebel leader Guy Plled through Petionville, a wealthy suburb, before moving into the heart of Port-au-Prince.

When the rebels arrived at the plaza outside the National Palace and a nearby police station, thousands of Haitians converged on the square, shouting “Liberty!” and “Aristide is gone!”

Philippe later met in a hotel with members of the political coalition that had opposed Aristide, including Evans Paul, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince and a top opposition figure. Paul said Philippe “has played an important role”.

However, not everyone was happy to see the rebels in the capital. Some residents watched indifferently, their arms folded. At one point, the convoy stopped and rebels jumped out, sweeping their weapons from side to side, then moved on.

A half-dozen Marines in combat fatigues with assault rifles were seen on the grounds of the palace. The rebels and the Marines did not immediately approach each other.

Most of the 150 US Marines who arrived Sunday night were at the capital’s airport, some doing overflights in a helicopter. Some of the 50 Marines who arrived last week drove cautiously along the waterfront road, and pedestrians raised their hands in fright and surprise upon seeing them.

The US and French forces spread out from the airport to protect key sites – the vanguard of a multinational force approved by the UN Security Council.

Col. David Berger, head of the U.S. Marine contingent, described the capital as “definitely not a hostile environment” for U.S. troops.

“Most of (Haitians) are going to welcome us. We’re glad to be here,” he told the AP.

Aristide, who fled Haiti under pressure from the rebels, the political opposition, the United States and France, arrived yesterday in the Central African Republic for “a few days,” according to the country’s state radio.

Aristide said in a short broadcast on the African station that those who overthrew him had “cut down the tree of peace”, but “it will grow again”. Aristide has returned to rule Haiti once before, in 1994, when US forces took him back to Port-au-Prince. He had been ousted in a military coup three years earlier.

An Associated Press correspondent traveled with more than 70 rebels under the command of Philippe, setting out before dawn from the western town of Gonaives and driving past scenes of death and destruction.

In the town of St Marc, the convoy rolled past three charred bodies in the road. The rebels took the town early in the uprising, which began Feb. 5, but were forced to retreat as government forces counterattacked.

Philippe said he planned to make preparations for the new president, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre, to assume office.

“We’re just going to make sure the palace is clean for the president to come … that there is no threat there,” said Philippe, who was in the military in the period when it repressed dissident politicians.

On Sunday, Alexandre said he was taking control of the government as called for by the constitution.

It was unclear how the rebel force would be greeted by the US and French troops, who were planning to establish security at diplomatic missions and other sites. Philippe earlier said he welcomed the peacekeepers.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he did not want some of leaders of the rebel groups to try to take any role in a new government.

“Some of these individuals we would not want to see re-enter civil society in Haiti because of their past records and this is something we will have to work through,” Powell said.

Berger said 150 Marines had arrived from 8th Battalion, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Powell said the US forces “will have a lead role” initially in restoring order to Haiti following the three-week rebellion that swept Aristide from power.

“I think initially we will comprise the bulk of the effort,” Powell told CBS on Monday. “But I think over time, those numbers will shift.”

The contingent of French troops was to first secure French diplomatic sites.

“We will go to the French Embassy and the ambassador’s residence and as events unfold we will decide if there are other places (to secure),” said French Lt Col Louis Acacio.

Aristide’s home in the suburb of Tabarre, meanwhile, was looted and trashed. Pictures, documents and a grand piano were dragged out onto the courtyard of the three-story villa, then abandoned.