Port-au-Prince, Haiti ? Pro-government mobs who robbed motorists while shooting up the Haitian capital disappeared from the streets Saturday, acting on an appeal from President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But a rebel leader said he would honor a U.S. appeal not to attack the capital.

In a statement Saturday, the White House suggested Aristide should consider stepping down, though it stopped short of actually saying so. The United States has urged both sides in the conflict to end the violence, which broke out Feb. 5.

The statement placed much of the blame on the Haitian president for the deadly crisis gripping his poverty-stricken nation. It reiterated that the United States is prepared to support multilateral efforts to restore order.

“This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide’s making,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “His failure to adhere to democratic principles has contributed to the deep polarization and violent unrest that we are witnessing in Haiti today.”

As the violence subsided, doctors said the morgue at Port-au-Prince’s only hospital was full, and that 25-30 bodies were brought in since Friday — raising the death toll to more than 100 in Haiti’s four-week rebellion.

Rebel leader Guy Philippe, speaking to The Associated Press from his stronghold in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second-largest city, said his fighters would not attack the capital “for a day or two.” An AP reporter saw rebels within 25 miles of Port-au-Prince on Friday.

An estimated 20,000 foreigners remained in the country and airlines including Air France, American Airlines and Air Jamaica have canceled flights to and from Haiti.

Underscoring the growing panic, 200 people sought places on a nine-seat plane headed to the Dominican Republic. France, Brazil, Canada and the United States sent military planes with soldiers Saturday to evacuate their citizens.

U.S. Coast Guard cutters intercepted Haitians trying to flee and some 350 Haitians were returned under the guard of U.S. Marines. The Haitians walked off the dock into a crowd of government supporters, who chanted “Aristide, Aristide, Aristide.”

A supporter of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide protests in front of the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A rebel leader said Saturday he would honor a U.S. appeal not to attack the capital.

But Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, has held fast in his refusal to leave office until his term expires in February 2006 — defying calls from the United States and France to step down.

Some 2,200 U.S. Marines were put on alert as Pentagon officials weighed the possibility of sending troops to guard against a possible flood of refugees and to protect the Americans in Haiti.