PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 6, 2008 (AFP) - The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, on Sunday called on Haiti's political leaders to hammer out a speedy consensus to end a crisis that has gripped the nation for months.

'A quick way out of the political crisis is needed. It's essential that Haiti get a new government,' Guehenno said at the end of a 48-hours visit here.

'There are urgent problems that need attention.'

Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has been without a prime minister since Jacques-Edouard Alexis resigned in April after a no-confidence vote following food riots that killed six people and wounded 200. UN peacekeepers were called in to help restore order.

Guehenno said he met Haiti's top leaders on his visit, including President Rene Preval.

'It's very important to gauge the possibility of a real consensus in Haiti. I'm rather optimistic after my meetings,' he added before boarding a flight at the Port-Au-Prince airport.

This year's riots were the first major political crisis to seize the country since Preval was elected president in February 2006, after two years of turmoil sparked by the ouster of president Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Haitian lawmakers have rejected Preval's last two prime minister-designates, Ericq Pierre and Robert Manuel, and are expected to take up shortly the third and most recent nominee, 61-year-old economist Mich?le Piere-Louis.