PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - Caribbean nations have asked the Organization of American States to investigate the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Trinidad's foreign minister said Thursday.

The 15-member Caribbean Community had initially called for a U.N. investigation after Aristide left Haiti under pressure from the United States and France on Feb. 29. Aristide says he was forced to resign by the United States, a claim Washington denies.

Opposition from France and the United States at the U.N. Security Council makes it unlikely an investigation would originate there, Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift said.

For that reason, Caribbean leaders decided at a meeting held this week in Antigua to take their request to the Washington-based OAS, he said.

"It is quite likely it may reach the (OAS) general assembly later on this year," Gift said. Caricom has taken the matter to the OAS permanent council "as a first step," he said.

OAS officials were not immediately available for comment.

Caricom has refused to recognize Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, saying it will reconsider the issue at a meeting in July in Grenada.

Caribbean leaders also tentatively agreed at their meeting this week to contribute peacekeepers and police to an upcoming U.N. mission in Haiti.