Port-au-Prince - Haitian President Rene Preval has designated economist Ericq Pierre to succeed Jacques-Edouard Alexis as the country's prime minister.

According to Haitian media reports from Monday, the designation of Pierre - a former official at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - has yet to be approved by both chambers of Congress, but the speakers of the chambers already anticipated their support when the designation was known Sunday.

Alexis was fired three weeks ago, after riots over the rise in the price of key foodstuffs like rice, corn and beans claimed the lives of six people.

The violence affected Port-au-Prince and other cities in the Caribbean country, as hundreds of young men plundered banks, petrol stations, shops and private homes in wealthy areas. The plundering, however, stopped after Alexis' exit.

Haiti - which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic - is the poorest country in the Americas, with 80 per cent of its 9 million people living on less than 2 dollars a day.

A UN peacekeeping mission has been active in the country since 2004, in an effort to promote stability. (dpa)