GENEVA, Switzerland Haiti is expected to benefit from new legislation making it difficult for dictators to stash cash in Swiss bank accounts.

Legislators are expected to vote on the new measures that would allow Switzerland to give aid groups in Haiti at least US$4.6 million claimed from Swiss bank accounts by former dictator Jean-Claude Baby Doc Duvalier, the Swiss government said yesterday.

Foreign Minister Micheline Calmey-Rey said it is hoped that with the new legislation cases such as ... Duvalier will not happen again.

In January, Switzerland's top court decided that US$4.6 million must be returned to the Duvalier's family because the statute of limitations on any crimes committed by them would have expired in 2001.

The Swiss government rushed through an emergency decree saying the funds were of criminal origin and should go to aid agencies working in the Haiti that was devastated by a powerful earthquake on January 12, killing an estimated 300,000 people and leaving many more homeless.

The law, which the government said would work retroactively, would make it easier for assets belonging to deposed dictators to be repatriated to national governments.

Under the new law, Switzerland's administrative court would be able to confiscate or freeze dictator cash in Swiss banks, even if a country is not able to prosecute its deposed leader. The purpose of confiscating the assets is to fund aid programmes that help improve people's living conditions in such a country, a Swiss government statement said.

It said it hopes "this new act can enter into force rapidly so that a solution to the issue of the Duvalier assets can be found as soon as possible".

Haiti made its first request for the money in 1986, shortly after Duvalier was forced out of power.