Haiti's Senate yesterday fired the impoverished country's prime minister after a week of food riots, brushing aside an announcement by President Rene Preval of plans to slash the cost of rice.

Sixteen of 17 senators who attended a special session of the chamber voted against Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, a Preval ally inaugurated in June 2006 as head of a coalition Cabinet meant to unite the fractious nation.

The move by opposition senators was seen as a serious but not crushing blow to Preval, whose 2006 election brought a measure of calm to the poorest country in the Americas as it searched for political stability after decades of dictatorship, military rule and economic mayhem.

The quest for a permanent peace has been derailed in the past 10 days by riots over the rising cost of living.

"Now it's my turn to play," Preval said when he was told by journalists of the Senate vote shortly after he and leaders of the private sector unveiled a plan to cut the cost of a sack of rice to $43 from $51.

Three dollars of the price cut would be paid for by businesses and the rest by international donors, he said.

Preval said he would ask parliament to pick a new prime minister.

The clash with senators came just two days after the president of the Caribbean country of nine million people managed to persuade rioters to end a week of violence in which at least five people were killed.

Crowds of stone-throwing Haitians, most of whom earn less than $2 a day, began battling UN peacekeepers and Haitian police in the south of the country on April 2, enraged at the soaring cost of rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples.

The unrest spread to the capital Port-au-Prince last week, bringing the sprawling and chaotic city to a halt as mobs took over the streets, smashing windows, looting shops, setting fire to cars and hurling rocks at passing motorists.