Unlike 10 years ago, when U.S. troops offered money for weapons used by gangs and former soldiers, Haitians today are being asked to give up their guns with little or no incentive and in a very insecure environment.

"I gave up my pistol, but if we don't start seeing schools and clinics in our neighborhood, we'll find other weapons. We'll fight for change with machetes if we have to," said Jacques Pierre as he and other residents of the Cite Soleil slum surrendered about 50 pistols, rifles and machine guns to French troops on Wednesday.

Disarmament and improved security have been key goals since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled the impoverished Caribbean nation on Feb. 29 amid an armed rebellion that threatened the capital of Port-au-Prince.

A U.S.-backed interim government took over Wednesday, but it will take months to rebuild a shattered police force and disarm militants who began the insurgency, and Aristide loyalists who vow to fight until the ousted leader returns.

With scant resources, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue is turning to the U.S.-led multinational task force to help police the country of 8 million and begin disarming gangs.

The scenario is vastly different from 1994, when more than 20,000 U.S. troops came to Haiti to restore Aristide to power after a 1991 coup. Those troops were welcomed by Haitians who had voted for the country's first democratically elected president.

This time, U.S. troops — who number fewer than 1,800 — have recovered two shotguns. Their Chilean counterparts have confiscated three weapons.

"Disarmament is extremely important... If the bad guys still have the weapons it won't be a secure country," said U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Ronald S. Coleman, the peacekeepers' commander.

A U.N. force is to take over by May, but it's not known if it will participate in disarmament, Frederick Schottler, a U.N. spokesman in Haiti, said Thursday.

French troops, better-equipped to communicate with French- and Creole-speaking Haitians, have taken a proactive stance, working with police to talk to residents in pro-Aristide strongholds where gunfights occur almost daily.

Gang leaders said one reason they agreed to surrender their weapons — considered a fraction of what they have — was that the French soldiers talked to residents and sent a military doctor to help staff their clinic.

Some blame the United States, not France, for removing Aristide.