Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on Monday he was forced to leave Haiti against his will by the United States, a claim dismissed by senior Bush administration officials as nonsense. Aristide denied Washington assertions that he resigned willingly, calling it a "coup d'etat" and likening his "forced" departure to a kidnapping. "They lied to me, and they may lie to you, too," he told CNN in a telephone interview from the Central African Republic, where he is in temporary exile. "They used force to push me out." "No one should force an elected president to move in order to avoid bloodshed," Aristide said. The Bush administration denied the charges. "The allegations that somehow we kidnapped former President Aristide are absolutely baseless, absurd," said Secretary of State Colin Powell. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flatly denied Aristide had been forced to leave. White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the charge "complete nonsense." But Aristide insisted: "I am telling you the truth." Asked about allegations he was kidnapped, he said in a text of the interview released by CNN: "As I said, I called this coup d'etat in a modern way, to have modern kidnapping." He said he was not taken away by Haitian forces, but rather by "Americans and Haitians together." He said they surrounded "the airport, my house, the palace." "I could see with my own eyes. It was when I was on my way to the airport," he said. "Americans had the total control." He said he spoke directly to American and Haitian "agents," who "told me in a clear and blunt way that thousands of people will get killed once they start. So I had to do my best to avoid that bloodshed." He said he then spent 20 hours in an American plane "not knowing where we were going" until just 20 minutes before landing in the Central African Republic. He said he was denied the right to make any phone calls. His American wife, he said, was told not to look through the windows. "You can't imagine this kind of terrible situation," he said. When read a copy of his resignation letter, Aristide alleged it was altered. "That's not right. ... They are lying to you by giving to you a false document," Aristide said. Aristide said part of his family was in New York, but added: "I don't know if I am free to leave where I am to go, to New York or elsewhere." "It is a tragedy," he said. **TAKEN BY FORCE*** Aristide's charges were also conveyed by phone to sympathetic U.S. lawmakers who have accused the Bush administration of encouraging a rebel advance in Haiti that led to the ouster of a democratically elected government. "He was taken by force from his residence in the middle of the night, forced on to a plane, and taken away without being told where he was going. He was kidnapped. There's no question about it," Randall Robinson, the former head of the black lobbying group TransAfrica, told the "Democracy Now!" U.S. public radio program. "He did not resign. He said he was forced out," Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, also told "Democracy Now!." "He said it over and over again, that he was kidnapped, that the coup was completed by the Americans." But Rep. Charles Rangel a New York Democrat and, like Waters, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said after talking by telephone with Aristide that interpreting his allegations of "kidnapping" was "subjective." "They strongly suggested that he get out of town. The military helped him make the decision," Rangel told reporters as a Congressional Black Caucus delegation met in New York with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss Haiti. While there had been reports Aristide left Haiti in handcuffs, Aristide denied this, Rangel said. "He said he was not in handcuffs. He felt like he was in handcuffs." Powell said U.S. authorities did not force Aristide onto the leased plane, that he went willingly and was not kidnapped. He expressed irritation at members of Congress claiming otherwise. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is shown in Bangui, Central African Republic upon his arrival early Monday March 1, 2004 in this image taken from video made available Tuesday March 2, 2004. (AP Photo/ via APTN )