Chronic political instability and violence have plagued Haiti for decades.

Much of the capital Port-au-Prince is at the mercy of armed gangs. Murder, kidnappings and rape are commonplace. Corruption is rife and the country's infrastructure is shattered.

President Rene Preval faces the daunting challenge of uniting the anarchic country where the rich and poor are bitterly divided. Most people in Haiti earn less than $2 a day.

A U.N. peacekeeping force has been in Haiti since 2004 to try to contain political and gang violence.

In 2008 the country was plunged into further turmoil when deadly riots erupted over high food price rises that have left many struggling to survive. The protests helped trigger the fall of the government.

Just four months later Haiti was hammered by four storms, which killed around 800 people, badly affected 1 million and caused $1 billion in damage. It was one of the worst catastrophes in Haiti's history.

Haiti, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. It is ranked 146th in the U.N. Development Programme's 2007/08 Human Development Index. The country also has one of the highest rates of HIV infection outside sub-Saharan Africa.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) included Haiti in its top 10 most under-reported emergencies of 2006 and 2005. Haiti was also named as one of the world's biggest "forgotten" crises in a 2005 AlertNet poll.

At the root of Haiti's social problems is the huge wealth gap between the predominantly Creole-speaking blacks who make up about 95 percent of the 9 million-strong population and the French-speaking mulattos who own the bulk of the country's wealth.

Despite pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid since Preval took office in 2006, Haiti's government has faced growing complaints about a lack of effective action to deal with the high cost of living and chronic unemployment.

Aid agencies say the country desperately needs money to fund economic recovery, build roads, schools and hopsitals and strengthen Haiti's police force and judicial system.

Political violence isn't the only threat to life in Haiti - the country lies in the middle of a hurricane belt.

Some 6,000 people died in natural disasters in 2004 alone. Around half were killed when floods from Tropical Storm Jeanne swept down hillsides in September to engulf Gonaives, a city of 250,000 people on the northwest coast. The disaster was blamed on deforestation. It came four months after flash floods wreaked havoc in the south.

Gonaives also bore the brunt of Tropical Storm Hanna, the worst of the storms that hit in quick succession in 2008. See our briefing on Haiti's floods.

Haiti's abject poverty, lack of infrastructure or early warning system and its ecological degradation make it vulnerable to even the weakest of storms.

The mountainous country was once heavily wooded, but 98 percent of its forests have been chopped down for charcoal for cooking. This has left a nation of subsistence farmers vulnerable to soil erosion, devastating floods and mudslides.

For more on the country's natural disasters see: Why is Haiti so prone to disaster?

Violence and poverty have forced many Haitians to flee in recent decades. There are fears that the food crisis could trigger a new wave of boat people from Haiti.

It is estimated nearly a fifth of Haitians live abroad, predominantly in North America, the Dominican Republic and France.

Those in the Dominican Republic, most of them illegal immigrants, work on cattle ranches and sugar plantations, or as domestic servants and construction workers in conditions that human rights groups say frequently approach slavery.

The United States has imposed a sea blockade since the early 1990s to intercept refugee boats and stop Haitians reaching U.S. soil and claiming asylum. Many still try but are sent back. Some drown when their boats sink during the perilous crossing.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says asylum seekers picked up at sea should not be sent back to Haiti if they fear persecution.

A 2008 report by the Inter-American Development Bank found that 1.5 million Haitians are working abroad and 80 percent send regular money back to relatives. In 2007, Haitians living abroad sent more than $1.65 billion home - twice Haiti's national budget and 30 percent of its gross domestic product.

Although the country won independence from France in 1804 Haitians had to wait nearly two centuries before they got the chance to pick their own leader in a democratic election.

The most notorious period in recent history was the Duvalier dictatorship when tens of thousands were killed or exiled. Voodoo physician Francois Duvalier, "Papa Doc", who seized power in 1956, used his Tonton Macoutes paramilitary group to terrorise the population. He ruled until his death in 1971.

Papa Doc was succeeded by his son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who fled to France in 1986 following an uprising.

An interim government, headed by General Henri Namphy, was supposed to oversee a two-year transition to democracy, but polls in 1987 were aborted after gunmen linked to the Duvalier government massacred at least 34 voters.

Most Haitians boycotted army-run elections in 1988 and the winner was toppled within months. After two more years of turmoil, Haiti held its first free elections in December 1990.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a fiery leftist Roman Catholic priest and a champion of Haiti's poor, won by a landslide, raising hopes the country was finally on the road to stability.

Haiti's first democratically elected president forced military leaders to retire, announced he would clean up Duvalierist corruption and promised to introduce democratic reform. But the military, supported by the wealthy elite, ousted Aristide just seven months later.

Coup leader Lt Gen Raoul Cedras headed a brutal regime, violently repressing Haiti's grassroots movement.

More than 40,000 Haitians fled the country in rickety boats in 1991 and 1992. Many ended up at a refugee camp at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and were eventually sent back to Haiti.

After the United Nations imposed an oil and arms embargo against Haiti in June 1993, Cedras signed a U.N.-brokered pact with Aristide calling for the restoration of democracy.

But the military refused to step aside as promised, prompting the United Nations to authorise a U.S.-led invasion in September 1994.

Aristide resumed office for the rest of his term and promptly disbanded the military. The constitution barred him from immediate re-election and he was succeeded in 1995 by his protege Preval - the only leader in Haiti's history to win a democratic election, serve a full term and hand over peacefully to a successor.

Aristide returned to power in 2001. However, his election victory was not recognised by the main opposition parties who had boycotted the presidential poll, accusing Aristide's Lavalas party of fraud in earlier parliamentary polls that were criticised by international observers.

By 2003 the country was deeply divided between pro- and anti-Aristide camps. Aristide, once seen as a hero of democracy, was accused of despotism and corruption and fled in 2004 in the midst of an armed revolt and under intense U.S. and French pressure.

Aristide accused the United States of kidnapping him after arriving in Central African Republic on a U.S.-arranged flight. But Washington said he had resigned.

After his departure an interim government took over and the United Nations sent a peacekeeping force to prevent the country descending into civil war.

Those behind the subsequent bloodshed included criminal street gangs, pro-Aristide supporters and "rebels", former members of the army who played a key role in forcing Aristide out.

Gunfights and kidnappings prompted many aid groups to scale back their work in the capital's most violent slum, Cite Soleil, which is home to between 300,000 and 600,000 people.

Cite Soleil and other shanty towns were the bedrock of Aristide's grass-roots Lavalas movement that first swept him to the presidency.

The interim government, which blamed Aristide for fomenting violence from exile in South Africa, took a hard line against Aristide supporters, prompting an outcry from human rights groups.

Preval has distanced himself from Aristide but has not ruled out allowing him to return from exile.

The government threw down the gauntlet to the nation's armed gangs in August 2006, telling them to lay down their weapons or be killed.

For more on the challenges facing the U.N., see: VIEWPOINT - UN must act on Haiti peacekeeping failures by ActionAid's Jack Campbell.

Violent protests against rocketing food prices and the rising cost of living erupted in the spring of 2008. Aid agency Oxfam said prices had doubled or tripled in the previous two months, leaving many Haitians increasingly hungry.

"This is a situation of complete desperation," Oxfam official Yolette Etienne said. "At this stage, they are hungry. But without strong action, this could become starvation."

Haiti is one of three countries in the world that share the largest daily caloric deficit - 460 calories per day below the daily requirement of 2,100 calories per day, according to the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP). Nearly a quarter of children are chronically malnourished, WFP says.

At least six people were killed during the protests which began in the south of the country and spread to Port-au-Prince. The riots pitted thousands of hungry Haitians against U.N. peacekeepers, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. The Brazilian-led mission, , which is widely despised in the capital's slums, numbers around 7,000 troops and 2,000 international police.

Haiti is highly vulnerable to food price increases as it imports over 50 percent of its food including rice, its staple diet. Food prices increased around the world in 2008 - caused by a combination of factors including high fuel prices, which made transportation more expensive, rising demand in Asia, the use of farmland for biolfuels and speculation.

In a bid to end the riots, Preval announced a 15 percent cut in rice prices and measures to uphold national food production by providing subsidies, credit and technical assistance to farmers. He said the price cut would be partly funded by international donors and partly by the private sector.

After Haiti was battered by storms, WFP appealed for $54 million to help it provide food. Nearly all of Haiti's agriculture was wiped out in the disaster.

Unlike some other content on this website, the written content in this article may be republished or redistributed by any means free of charge. Any use of photographs and graphics on this website is expressly prohibited. You must check whether written content contained in other articles on this website may be republished or redistributed without the express permission of Reuters or the relevant third party provider.