By Mica Rosenberg

GUATEMALA CITY, March 19 (Reuters) - Gang-ravaged Haiti plans to spend a debt relief windfall on security improvements, despite pressure to use it to reduce poverty, the country's government said on Monday.

Haitian Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil told Reuters the presence of gangs that rape and kidnap citizens and battle United Nations peacekeepers meant the country needed to modernize its police force, build prisons and train judges.

"One of the key priorities of this year's budget will be security and strengthening the justice system," Dorsainvil said in an interview at the Inter-American Development Bank's annual meeting in Guatemala.

The Washington-based lender has agreed to write off about $525 million of the country's debt by 2009, citing Haiti's position as the poorest country in the Americas.

Haiti, which is part of a broader global debt relief program being managed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, will receive interim debt relief of $20 million over the next two years.

Lobbying groups, many gathered in Guatemala, are pressuring the Haitian government to make sure the relief helps the poorest people in the country who do not have access to clean water, medicines and proper food.

Dorsainvil defended the security plans, saying the government would need to fund police training from its annual budget whether it had the debt relief or not.

"The debt relief is budget support," he said.

The government of President Rene Preval, elected just over a year ago amid widespread hopes that he could bridge the divide between the poor and a wealthy elite -- and also end crime -- has made ending violence a primary goal.

Dorsainvil said Haiti plans to double the size of its police force to 14,000 to tackle the gangs that have moved from the cities to rural areas, terrifying small towns and villages.

Doctors and aid workers estimate that more than 800 women were raped between February 2006 and February 2007 in Haiti's capital.

AlertNet news is provided by