Haiti was the world's first black republic and the first Caribbean state to achieve independence, but decades of violence, instability, dictatorship and coups have left it the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.

• Hundreds killed in political violence
• Riots over rising food prices
• One of highest HIV infection rates in the Americas

Most of Haiti's 9 million people scrape by on less than $2 a day and the country is awash with weapons, fuelling endemic violence.

Much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is at the mercy of armed gangs. Killings and kidnappings are rife.

A U.N. peacekeeping force numbering just under 9,000 troops and civilian police has struggled to quell the violence.

Both criminal gangs and political militias - supporters and opponents of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide - have been blamed for the bloodshed.

Haitians voted for a new president in 2006 - the first poll since Aristide was ousted in 2004 amid an armed rebellion. The election was won by Rene Preval who was backed by the poor masses in the slums but mistrusted by the same wealthy elite who helped send Aristide into exile.

In the spring of 2008, violent protests over rising food prices pitted U.N. peacekeepers against thousands of hungry Haitians. The riots led to the fall of the government.

Just months later four deadly storms slammed into the country killing hundreds and badly affecting up to 1 million people in one of Haiti's worst ever catastrophes.