Haitian-born hip-hop star and humanitarian activist Wyclef Jean will announce his bid for his native country's presidency this week, CNN and Time magazine reported on Tuesday.

Wyclef, whose interest in the post has been rumored in recent weeks, will make the announcement on CNN's "Larry King Live" show on Thursday, the cable network said quoting a source close to the recording artist.

A spokeswoman for the 37-year-old Grammy Award winner confirmed to AFP that he was scheduled to appear on the CNN talk show Thursday and "that will be his first announcement," but declined to give further details.

Current President Rene Preval, who named Wyclef as a Haiti goodwill ambassador in 2007, is barred by the constitution from seeking a new term in the elections scheduled for November 28.

The Caribbean nation is struggling to emerge from a massive January 12 earthquake that killed 250,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.

Preval's mandate expires in February 2011, but several parties have accused him of seeking to stay in office, adding political tensions to the economic and humanitarian troubles afflicting the impoverished country.

On Tuesday Time said Wyclef told the magazine he would announce his campaign for president shortly before the August 7 deadline. "If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this," Wyclef said on Time's website. "The quake drove home to me that Haiti can't wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st century."

The singer-songwriter also said he saw no contradiction between his artistic career and his political aspirations. "If I can't take five years out to serve my country as president, then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything," he told the weekly.

Last week, amid the rumors of a possible presidential run, the Jean family said in a statement that "Wyclef's commitment to his homeland and its youth is boundless and he will remain its greatest supporter regardless of whether he is part of the government moving forward."

A founding member of Grammy-winning 1990s hip-hop and reggae band The Fugees before embarking on a successful solo career, Wyclef lives in the New York area but has traveled to Haiti several times seeking to help defuse violence and help the most disadvantaged Haitians.

He is founder of the humanitarian Yele Haiti Foundation and has played a prominent role in securing international aid after the earthquake leveled much of the capital city Port-au-Prince.

Widespread allegations of financial mismanagement were leveled at the organization during the crisis.

The quake caused a huge humanitarian disaster in the poorest country in the Americas.

Should Wyclef run for president he may do so against his own uncle, Raymond Joseph, who has been Haiti's ambassador to the United States since 2005.

Joseph told the Christian Science Monitor that he would shortly announce his candidacy, but hinted that he and nephew Wyclef would not be running against each other.

"No, I wouldn't say running against, I would say running parallel," Joseph told the Monitor. "We are family. And we won't allow politics to divide."