A rebel looks for armed supporters of President Aristide during a search in Port-au-Prince. (Reuters)

Port-au-Prince, March 1 (Reuters): Armed rebels who helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide paraded round the National Palace in central Port-au-Prince today, greeted by thousands of cheering Haitians as US Marines began a mission to restore order.

The rebels, whose leaders said they would lay down their arms and halt their 24-day uprising, had begun arriving in the chaotic city yesterday, hours after Aristide fled the country.

A convoy of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles raced through the streets of the capital and were greeted by joyous supporters who waved flags and flashed V for victory signs.

The rebels, heavily armed and wearing military fatigues, sounded a police siren as they moved through the streets.

One of their leaders, former senior police chief Guy Philippe, was in the convoy, which halted at a police station near the palace. Thousands of people were gathered nearby celebrating, some shouting: “Guy Philippe, Guy Philippe.”

Outside town, US Marines secured Haiti's main airport and unpacked gear as they began their mission to halt the turmoil in the country, the poorest in the Americas, that began even before the uprising against Aristide erupted on February 5.

Aristide, once a champion of Haiti's fledgling democracy who was driven out by the rebel uprising and foreign pressure to quit, left for Africa early yesterday in a hasty departure arranged by the US. Looting and gun battles erupted in the wake of his departure. Looters struck shops, police stations and the homes of Aristide supporters, carting off refrigerators, doors, televisions and clothing.

The contingent of 150 to 200 Marines, joined by over 100 French troops, unloaded machine guns, grenade launchers and bottles of Evian water at the airport today, prepared to guard key sites and restore order.

“I have no clue how we're going to be received,” 21-year-old US Lance Corporal Eric Hafford said as he munched candies atop a Humvee at the airport. The Marines force is expected to grow to about 1,000.

“They're going to welcome us and we're glad to be here,” said Colonel Dave Berger. Marines lounged on couches in the VIP section of the airport as Humvees were unloaded from planes onto the airport tarmac.

On the road to the airport, some Haitians held up two fingers in a “V for victory” sign. Others held up three fingers, a sign of dismay that Aristide's presidency ended after three years of a five-year term.

With the city returning to a semblance of normality, a street market was packed with people and “tap-taps,” the colourful Haitian taxis fashioned from pick-up trucks, although traffic was lighter than usual because of fuel shortages.

Aristide, a former radical priest who preached against Haiti's dictators in the 1980s and was exiled by a military coup in 1991 during his first term as president, arrived today in the capital of the Central African Republic. “By toppling me they have cut down the tree of peace, but it will grow again,” he told state radio in Bangui.

The arrival of the US Marines was the third major deployment of U.S. troops to Haiti in the past century. Ten years ago President Bill Clinton sent 20,000 Marines to restore Aristide to power.