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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The U.N. Security Council began its first visit to Haiti on Wednesday, seeking to evaluate the work of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers trying to stabilize the impoverished country more than a year after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Despite gunfights in recent weeks between U.N. troops and politically aligned gangs, Brazilian U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg said the council members are pleased the year-old peacekeeping mission is making progress in reducing violence before fall elections.

"There is a profound conviction among the members that we are doing well, that we are doing right," said Sardenberg, who is leading the four-day visit.

Officials said they expected the Security Council would decide to extend the mission beyond June, when its mandate is due to expire, to maintain peacekeepers in Haiti through elections set for October and November.

"Haiti's progress toward elections is being followed by the whole world," Sardenberg said. "The fact that there is a trend toward stabilization is quite clear in my mind."

Some Haitians and diplomats also have credited the peacekeeping mission with starting to produce results after months of inaction.

"Honestly I didn't think they would come and save this country," said Guy Philippe, a leader of last year's rebellion against Aristide. "I think they're working now."

U.N. soldiers and civilian police have moved more aggressively in recent weeks against armed bands believed responsible for a series of attacks on peacekeepers and Haitian police. The mission had been criticized for its reluctance to use force.

"It's got momentum. It's proven that it's willing to defend the Haitian people against lawless elements and it needs to finish the job," U.S. Ambassador James Foley told The Associated Press ahead of the visit.

However, many in Haiti and abroad have accused the U.N. peacekeeping force of wrongs ranging from ineffectiveness to enabling political repression and murder.

The pro-Aristide Catholic Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste said the United Nations had generated goodwill among the poor by beginning to protect protesters from trigger-happy Haitian police. But he said police shootings of demonstrators last month brought back anger against U.N. forces.

"The honeymoon they had for a short time with the people, they are losing it," said Jean-Juste, a potential candidate for president.

More than 400 people have died since September in clashes among pro- and anti-Aristide street gangs, police, peacekeepers and ex-soldiers who helped oust Aristide.

It was the U.N. Security Council's first trip to the Caribbean region. All 15 nations on the council were represented, sending either their U.N. ambassador or a deputy.

Council members met with interim President Boniface Alexandre to evaluate the work of peacekeepers trying to stabilize Haiti. They raised concerns about a strained judicial system that keeps hundreds of prisoners jailed for months without charge, Sardenberg said.

The prisoners include former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and dozens of other former officials.

The interim government accuses Neptune of orchestrating killings of political opponents in the western town of St. Marc during the February 2004 uprising that ousted Aristide. Neptune denies the allegations.

"We suggested that more effort be made as far as the reform of the judiciary system," Sardenberg said. "There are enormous numbers of cases which are not being tried."

Sardenberg said Boniface told council members Haiti needed more international assistance in training judges and reforming its penal code.

Council members also planned to meet with Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and other politicians and civic leaders.

The visit comes just days after U.N. police advisers coordinated Haitian police operations that resulted in the shooting deaths of prominent rebel Remissainthe Ravix and one-time pro-Aristide gang leader Jean Rene Anthony, who officials said had joined forces against the police and United Nations.

On Tuesday, Latortue said he would tell the Security Council during his Thursday meeting that conditions have improved dramatically.

"There is a world of difference in Haiti today," Latortue said.

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer