BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

A visibly pregnant Angelina Jolie and beau Brad Pitt toured a children's jail and other parts of Port-au-Prince Friday as Haitians expressed surprise that Hollywood celebrities would visit their violence and poverty plagued nation.

But despite the cocoon of Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers guarding their every move, Jolie, 30, and Pitt, 42, managed to shine a spotlight on the cause of their visit -- the country's desperately poor children.

Elaine Bole, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, said Jolie ``shines a light on a problem that doesn't always get a lot of light. The work she does for us, it makes a huge difference.''

Jolie has long been a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR.

''It's about the kids,'' said the stars' host, Wyclef Jean, hip-hop artist and Haiti native. Jean helped found the music group The Fugees, and his Yéle Haiti foundation runs several programs to help children in the Caribbean nation.

As a U.N. ambassador, Jolie has visited U.N. refugee camps in Ecuador, Colombia, the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Cambodia, Thailand and Pakistan. She has adopted an orphan girl from Ethiopia and a son from Cambodia.

Jolie and Pitt warmly greeted the crowd of workers at the Port-au-Prince airport as they arrived Friday by helicopter from the neighboring Dominican Republic, where Jolie is filming a movie. They joined Jean to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his nonprofit foundation.

''You really can see that she wanted to come,'' said Maryse Kedar, president of the Haiti branch of Yéle Haiti and one of a select group of Haitians who greeted Jolie and Pitt on their first-ever visit to the country. ``Nobody comes to visit Haiti, so to have a celebrity like Angelina come here, Haitians really appreciate that.''

`AMAZING PEOPLE'

''You hear so much just about the danger and the fear and then you come here and you meet just an amazing people,'' Jolie was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. ``Given just a little chance, and given a little help, this is going to be a great country.''

Though Jolie's visit wasn't part of her U.N. duties, Kedar and Jean said they hope her presence there will raise the profile of Haiti's desperate needs above the wave of violence and kidnappings racking the country at it prepares for repeatedly delayed presidential elections, now set for Feb. 7.

VISITING THE CHILDREN

Jolie and Pitt's first step was the Immaculate Conception School where they visited with children who are part of an after-school sports program sponsored by the Yéle Haiti Foundation.

Later they went to the children's jail, where they were greeted by four youngsters who rapped about their lives behind bars and the hope they held for the future. As they visited the cells, the couple used a translator to ask the children, some as young as 10, about their lives and how they ended up in jail.

Jean handed out a few toys and gave the jail a symbolic check for $2,000 -- a promise of what his foundation will provide to the prison, Kedar said.

The couple ended their visit with a private reception at the Montana Hotel and are scheduled to leave Haiti today.

While the tour of the jail was somber, the visit to local television station Telemax, which Jean recently bought, was lively. Groups of teenage girls screamed Pitt's name while waving his photo.

In the courtyard, scores of school children wearing white Yéle Haiti T-shirts welcomed the couple with traditional Haitian dances and music. The couple and Jean later joined in the festivities, dancing with the youngsters.

''I am so happy to see them here,'' said Elisa Philippon, 14, who came to catch a glimpse of the celebrities. ``They are the perfect couple, we are really happy because this is such a big opportunity for us. I think it's a good thing they came here, they can see what's really going on.''

Philippon acknowledged that most Haitians know nothing about Jolie and Pitt and were probably surprised by the heavily armed 10-vehicle caravan that moved them around Port-au-Prince. But they do know Jean, she added.

''We're huge fans of Wyclef, but what they're doing here is for the people up high, not for us down below,'' said Emmanuel Joseph, 24, an unemployed man who could not get into the Telemax station. ``He goes down to Bel Air, Solino, Cite Soleil to see the Haitian people. He's our brother. But we don't know why those people came.''

Herald special correspondent Reed Lindsay in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.

© 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.