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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A U.N. peacekeeper from the Philippines was shot and killed Thursday on the fringes of a Haitian slum where troops have clashed with politically aligned street gangs, underscoring the volatile situation as the U.N. Security Council discussed expanding the mission.

The soldier was killed as U.N. troops prepared to set up an observation post at the entrance to Cite Soleil, a slum dominated by supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, U.N. officials said. He was the third peacekeeper to be killed during the year-old U.N. mission in Haiti.

Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, the U.N. force's Brazilian commander, said a bullet pierced the soldier's helmet. Troops from Ecuador and Jordan returned fire, he said.

"They received a good quantity of fire," Heleno said. "They answered the fire."

Philippine troops said the soldier, a 22-year army veteran, was driving at least one officer in a white U.N. sport utility vehicle when he was shot. U.N. troops were barricading sidestreets and establishing a checkpoint at the slum's main entrance in an effort to clamp down on gangs believed led by Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme, whose fighters wield weapons ranging from sawed-off shotguns to AK-47s.

Members of the U.N. Security Council, who were on a fact-finding trip, were meeting at the Hotel Montana on a hill overlooking the city at the time. The council's visit is meant to assess conditions before a vote next month on extending the U.N. peacekeeping mission beyond June, when its mandate expires.

The Philippine government Friday deplored the peacekeeper's killing but said the incident will not affect the country's 135-soldier commitment to the U.N. mission.

"We have a commitment with the U.N. Soldiers know the risk," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Gilbert Asuque said on ABS-CBN TV in the Philippines. "We'll continue with the work of peacekeeping in Haiti."

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue asked council members for more international help disarming an array of militant groups who could disrupt the electoral process, according to diplomats who attended the morning meeting.

Anne Woods Patterson, the United States' acting U.N. ambassador, said in an interview that adding officers to the 1,400-person civilian police force was also under consideration.

"There may be a very good argument here for more police, to strengthen the police contingent before the elections," she said.

Adding soldiers to the 6,200-member U.N. peacekeeping force is not under consideration, said Brazilian U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg, who is leading the council's four-day fact-finding trip.

A U.N. effort to disarm restive former soldiers in the countryside and gangs of young men in Port-au-Prince's slums has produced only a handful of weapons. Some international observers say despite more aggressive U.N. moves against armed bands in recent months, tens of thousands of high-powered weapons pose a risk to stability and the upcoming elections.

Latortue said that to improve security, the international community must address Haiti's dire economic situation and widespread environmental degradation.

"It is not only a military problem or a police problem. This is a poverty problem, an environment problem," he said at a news conference.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, and residents desperate for fuel and cash have stripped its hillsides of trees, harming water quality and contributing to devastating floods.

Dozens of slum-dwellers stood outside the meeting at the gate of Latortue's office, waving tree branches, chanting that they were starving and shouting that the United Nations did not protect them from armed gangs.

"People who are hungry don't vote in elections," said Jacques Predilus, 30, an unemployed resident of Cite Soleil.

Associated Press