Minister of Agriculture Parfait Mbaye of Central African Republic

position to comment on Aristide's claim.

Aristide will stay here or if he'll go,'' Colonel Mbaye was quoted as saying, ''but if he asks US, we won't refuse him.

I can’t say definitively if Aristide will stay here or if he’ll go,” Mbaye was quoted as saying, “but if he asks US, we won’t refuse him.

I don't know that yet," Mbaye said when asked where Aristide would go next.

Mbaye said he hoped that if Aristide remained permanently in the Central African Republic, the international community would help pay for his upkeep.

They are coming to boost the CEMAC forces," Mbaye said of the Chadian troops, adding that the final size of the Chadian contingent was yet to be established.

Mbaye said Bozize had not been invited to the summit.

Mbaye said a demonstration on Friday by students who were demanding scholarship payments had been planned during meetings such as the Sunday one by the MLPC executive board.

Mbaye said that Bozize, who was visiting Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, had directed that the eight be released and taken to their homes where soldiers would be put at their disposal, for their protection.

In a radio broadcast, rebel spokesman Parfait Mbaye described Bozize as the president of the republic.

Communications Minister Parfait Mbaye said he wasn't in a position to comment on Aristide's claim.

It is a fait accompli, the facts are there," spokesman Parfait Mbaye said hours after rebels fighting for General Francois Bozize said they had taken over the presidential palace and the airport in Bangui, forcing President Ange-Felix Patasse's plane to divert to Cameroon.

Mbaye said Aristide could choose to stay where he is, in an apartment in the presidential palace with his wife, a brother-in-law and two bodyguards.

Mbaye said Aristide has "a particular status, which requires him to remain more or less stationary.

Mbaye said the general has returned to Bangui and will address the nation later.