The new head of the interim commission, Prof. Sibghatullah Mojadidi, made only a brief statement.

Nevertheless, the president is willing to relinquish control of the state media and a limited number of troops to an interim commission if new elections are held.

This included former Justice John Rutledge, who was appointed Chief Justice under an interim commission during a recess of Congress and served for only four months in 1795.

This must be done, it seems, by creating, among other things, an interim commission for the reconstruction of Haiti and by establishing a multi-donor trust fund to oversee the donors' generous contributions.

"Former officials, including an N.S.C. staffer working for Mr. Clarke, told us the threat was seen as one that could cause hundreds of casualties, not thousands," according to one interim commission report.

It is like a textbook: an assessment was made at international level, the governments made plans, these were discussed with NGOs, there were various endorsements and there is an interim commission coordinating the whole process.

The ELDR believes that the Santer-led caretaker Commission has lost its political and moral authority to act and so it must go immediately and be replaced by an interim Commission for the balance of its unexpired term.

If there is a problem now with an interim Commission that has lost its moral and political authority to act, the problem arises, in my view, because of the failure of the Council to listen to Parliament and to appoint an effective interim Commission.