Brazil's incoming government is unlikely to provide military assistance to Haiti despite calls for an international force to confront gangs, two officials said, noting that a prior military intervention did not yield lasting improvements.

The United Nations last month discussed sending a strike force to Haiti to reopen a fuel terminal that had been blockaded by gangs. Police took back control of the terminal this month and fuel distribution has resumed, but kidnappings are again on the rise and gangs continue to expand their territory.

"Any Brazilian participation would be difficult, overall in a multinational force," said Celso Amorim, a foreign policy advisor to President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who takes office on Jan. 1.

Amorim noted that Brazil's military participation in the MINUSTAH U.N. peacekeeping force, which operated in Haiti from 2004 to 2017, was widely unpopular at home and that Haiti's security situation was worse after the mission than before.

(With input from Reuters)