PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Some smiles but also some hostile words greeted U.S. Marines as they expanded their patrols in Port-au-Prince as the capital took faltering steps toward normalcy after the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Marines trained their rifles down gritty streets and into a teeming market after rolling into the looted port area in eight Light Armored Vehicles and venturing onto the streets.

As merchants scrubbed pro-Aristide graffiti off their businesses, the exiled president's supporters vented their anger, holding up photographs of the former slum preacher who was ousted twice from the presidency.

Aristide fled the country Sunday, pressured to resign by rebels fighting a popular rebellion neared the outskirts of the capital and by the United States and former colonial ruler France.

The Marines also reportedly arrived Thursday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, according to a resident reached by telephone. A duty officer at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami could not confirm that early today.

Haitians in Port-au-Prince sought calm after looting, reprisal shootings and other violence killed at least 130 people since the uprising began Feb. 5.

The Organization of American States announced the establishment of a tripartite council that is the first step toward forming a government of national unity in the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million.

Within a week, the three members will choose, by consensus, seven members for a Council of Sages. That council will propose a new prime minister.

The killings of Haitians continued despite the arrivals of international troops - the vanguard of a U.N. peacekeeping mission - and a pledge by rebel leader Guy Philippe that his men would disarm.

In Gressier, just west of Port-au-Prince, an Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of four men in the street Thursday. All were shot in the head and three had their hands tied behind their backs.

Philippe's political adviser warned that the rebels might lay down their arms but were not ready to give them up.

Leading opposition politician Evans Paul told France's LCI television that the opposition coalition would meet formally with Philippe and his associates today.

Philippe has said he wants to reinstall Haiti's disgraced army, which fomented 32 coups in 200 years of independence.

The army, known for its brutality, ousted Aristide months after he became the nation's first democratically elected president in 1990. Aristide was restored to popular acclaim by a U.S. invasion in 1994 and disbanded the army in 1995.

But he lost much popularity as he failed to improve life for Haiti's poor and allegedly used police and militant loyalists to attack his opponents.

South Africa added its voice to calls from the 15-nation Caribbean Community and an African-American lobby for an investigation into the circumstances of Aristide's departure aboard a U.S. government-provided jet. He has claimed that he was abducted at gunpoint by Marines.

"The suggestion that President Aristide may have been forced out of office, if true, will have serious consequences and ramifications for the respect of the rule of law and democracy the world over," South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Thursday.

U.S. officials strongly deny the claims. Secretary of State Colin Powell said they acted at Aristide's request and probably saved his life.

More than 1,600 foreign troops are in Haiti, according to the U.S. Southern Command. They include 1,000 U.S. Marines, 440 French, 130 Chileans and 60 Canadians.

More than 20 U.S. military flights have delivered the U.S. forces with nearly 800 tons of equipment and supplies this week.