Claude Boucher, Canada's ambassador to Haiti, has signed over a pledge of $17 million in Canadian aid to help Haiti hold elections this year.

Haiti has been without a legislature for a full year, after an armed uprising prompted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to leave the country.

The interim government has promised general elections by the end of 2005.




Election funding will be managed by the United Nations Development Program. UN peacekeepers will help provide security.

About $10 million of the Canadian funding will be disbursed Wednesday. The remaining $7 million will be spent in one or two months.