Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said Saturday that his country may increase the number of Chilean troops deployed in Haiti on a peacekeeping mission.

The decision would be made after he discussed the issue with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and received a nod from Chile's Senate, Lagos told local press.

Lagos, who is now in Singapore for an official visit, confirmed Friday that the United Nations Security Council had decided to replace the current 3,600-member contingent of US-led troops with UN peacekeepers from June 1 for an initial period of six months.

The troops from the United States, Canada, Chile and France have been on patrol since the ouster in February of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president.

Lagos said the United Nations' decision "is important because it proposes the withdrawal of certain troops and the council wishes Chilean troops to stay."

"We must carry out an evaluation and we also want to establish contact on this issue with President Lula and the Chilean ambassador to the UN," he said.

Lagos said the cost of the presence of Chilean soldiers in the peacekeeping force was one of the issues to be considered, but he branded as "demagogic" domestic criticism on the issue.

Source: Xinhua