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A radio ad urging Haitians to reveal illegal weapons caches to the U.S. Embassy has angered politicians and fueled debate on whether the troubled Caribbean nation has become a tacit U.S. protectorate.

The embassy denied any attempt on its part to undermine Haiti's sovereignty but critics say U.S. authorities have appropriated the proper role of the Haitian police.

In a paid commercial broadcast in Creole on Haitian radio, U.S. officials promise compensation to those who provide information about people who have weapons or on the location of those weapons.

A Haitian cabinet minister said he was offended.

"I am not a spokesman for the government, but as a cabinet member I feel offended that a foreign embassy can be allowed to air such ads in my country," he said. The minister asked not to be identified because he was not an official spokesman.

Several government officials and politicians accused the United States and other foreign powers of turning Haiti, the world's first independent black republic, into a protectorate.

"I think it's some sort of protectorate even though they did not officially call it that name," said former Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans Paul, who ran unsuccessfully for president this year.

"I don't think Preval can make any decision without taking into account the will of those foreign powers and institutions. I don't think the Haitian embassy in the United States could have released such a commercial," he said.

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