(Adds U.N. and police comments in paragraphs 12-15)

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Heavily armed gangs, fleeing Haiti's dangerous slums in the face of U.N. peacekeeper raids, have established new bases in provincial areas, creating panic in rural populations, officials and residents say.

A gang leader known as Belony, who was recently chased from the capital's Cite Soleil slum by U.N. peacekeepers, now leads about 100 gunmen near the northern town of Saint-Michel, according to Patrick Joseph, a lawmaker representing the area.

"The government and security forces should act now to avoid a deterioration of the security situation there," Joseph said, adding that the gang members were making no effort to hide.

"They take refuge near a mountain, walking in the dozens with assault weapons in their hands and the population of Saint-Michel is frightened to death."

U.N. peacekeepers were sent to Haiti shortly after then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an armed rebellion three years ago and have stepped up operations against slum gangs in recent weeks.

The gangs, some of which remain loyal to Aristide, have run many of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods for years.

Hundreds of soldiers raided Cite Soleil in early February, spurring a battle in which thousands of rounds were fired, at least one person was killed and several were wounded.

The U.N. Security Council voted two weeks ago to extend the peacekeeping mission for eight months and asked troops to step up operations against gangs. The U.N. force has 6,800 troops and nearly 2,000 police.

CATTLE THEFT AND PANIC

Residents of Saint-Michel told Radio Metropole that they feared attacks by the armed gangs.

"We wonder what the Haitian police and U.N. troops are doing. We call on them to come and help us," one unidentified resident told the radio station.

"They (gang members) are walking with their heavy weapons, they seize cattle, they have been panicking the population."

Edmond Mulet, the U.N. envoy to Haiti, said U.N. helicopter crews were conducting searches over areas where bandits were reported to be hiding.

"It will be easier for security forces to track them because they can't go unnoticed in rural areas," Mulet said. "We will continue to track them wherever they go."

Reports from other provincial cities, including Les Cayes in the south, also indicate armed gangs hunted by U.N. soldiers in the capital have tried to set up in rural areas where the police or U.N. presence is absent or very weak.

"They probably stay with relatives or other people they have connection with," said Jean Robenson Belledent, police commissioner in the northwest town of Port-de-Paix, where some bandits are believed to have fled from Port-au-Prince.

Gang members have also attempted to flee across the border to the neighboring Dominican Republic.

U.N. officials said they arrested about three dozen gang members in the raid three weeks ago and have confiscated a few weapons and some ammunition in Cite Soleil.

Critics blamed U.N. troops for failing to capture Belony and other notorious gang leaders.

"When you chase them away and leave them with their weapons and the potential to take the violence elsewhere, you don't solve anything," former army Col. Himler Rebu said.

But U.N. military officials said the primary goal of the sweeps was not to capture gang leaders but to take control of areas held by gangs and give residents a sense of security.

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