Port-au-Prince, Haiti - The United States considers a temporary halt of deportations of about 30,000 Haitians, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

The US administration considered granting Temporary Protected Status to those 30,000 Haitians who illegally entered the US before President Barack Obama took office, Clinton said on a short stop-over in Haiti on her way to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

Haiti fears the repatriations would deprive it of much-needed remittances. The protected status would allow the Haitians to stay in the US.

"We are going to be considering how to help the people who are here continue to have those resources," Clinton said after meeting with Haitian President Rene Duval. "But at the same time, we don't want to encourage other Haitians to make the dangerous journey across the water."

After decades of economic mismanagement, Haiti is the poorest country on the American continent. While the policing situation has stabilized over the past two years due to the presence of UN peacekeepers, the global downturn and four hurricanes, which cost about 900 lives, lead the Caribbean nation close to a collapse again.

The international community recently raised 324 million dollars in aid for Haiti to help repair last year's hurricane damage.

Clinton left Haiti for the Dominican Republic later on Thursday.