Port-au-Prince, Haiti ? President Jean-Bertrand Aristide declared Thursday he was ready to die to defend his country against a bloody rebellion, indicating he plans to cling to power. The U.S. government, citing continued violence, urged Americans to leave Haiti.

Aristide’s defiance and Washington’s warning came as the United States and other countries were preparing a political plan to resolve the crisis. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the plan could be presented to Haitian government and opposition leaders as early as Friday.

The Pentagon said it was sending a small military team to assess the security of the U.S. Embassy and its staff in the Caribbean country.

The announcement came as an unconfirmed report surfaced that two embassy vehicles were fired on earlier in the week. An American in Haiti who spoke on condition of anonymity said that six armed men stopped the two vehicles in Port-au-Prince on Monday night and fired the shots, hitting a vehicle but causing no injuries.

The last major government bastion in northern Haiti was Cap-Haitien, where armed supporters of Aristide patrolled the city Thursday, vowing to fight any rebel attempt to seize control. Frightened police remained barricaded in their station, saying they were too few and poorly armed to repel any attack.

“I am ready to give my life if that is what it takes to defend my country,” Aristide told stony-faced police officers honoring slain comrades at a ceremony in Port-au-Prince, the capital in the south.

“If wars are expensive, peace can be even more expensive,” warned Aristide, who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup.

Amid the chaos, the United States urged Americans to leaves Haiti. More than 20,000 Americans, at least a quarter of them missionaries, are registered with the U.S. Embassy.

A rebel holding a shotgun walks in front of the burned-out police station as people run behind him during a rally of the new National Resistance Front To Liberate Haiti in Gonaives, Haiti.

Peace Corps personnel were being withdrawn, and other U.S. citizens should leave while commercial transportation is still available, the State Department said.

“American citizens should be aware that the U.S. Embassy has prohibited travel by its staff outside of Port-au-Prince,” the warning said.

It said the embassy’s ability to provide emergency services to citizens outside the capital was limited and had “drastically decreased in recent days due to numerous random roadblocks set up by armed groups.”

In Washington, Powell said the emerging political plan did not contemplate Aristide’s stepping down before his term ends in February 2006, as Haiti’s political opposition and rebels are demanding. But he said the United States would not object if, as part of a negotiation with opposition leaders, Aristide agreed to leave ahead of schedule.

“I think if they will both accept this plan and start executing on it, we might find a way through this crisis politically,” Powell said.