UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon asked the Security Council today to approve 3,500 more peacekeepers for Haiti - a nearly 40 per cent increase - to help cope with the chaos that followed last week's earthquake.
World leaders have promised massive amounts of assistance to rebuild the Caribbean nation of 9 million since last Tuesday's quake killed as many as 200,000 people and left Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in ruins.
Aid workers have struggled to get food and medical assistance to the survivors, many of them injured and living in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies.
But nearly a week into the crisis aid is only just starting to get to those in need.
CNN reported tonight that "widespread looting" is going on in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
The US ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, acknowledged that “the security situation is obviously not perfect,” but said new troops scheduled to arrive during the day were meant to back up Haitian police and UN personnel, not replace them.
The Pan American Health Organisation estimates 50,000 to 100,000 died in the earthquake and Haitian officials believe the number is higher. Many survivors have lost their homes and many live outside for fear unstable buildings could collapse in aftershocks.
Haitian government officials said the total death toll was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000.
Trucks piled with corpses were ferrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but tens of thousands of victims are still believed buried under the rubble.
The number of UN peacekeepers in Haiti currently stands at just over 9,000. Ban's proposal would take the strength to more than 12,500 - up to 8,940 troops and 3,711 police.
The UN peacekeepers have provided security in the country since a 2004 uprising deposed one president but the mission lost at least 40 members when its headquarters collapsed, including its top leaders.
The draft resolution endorses those figures and says the council recognises "the dire circumstances and urgent need for a response."
A draft resolution circulated by the United States said the request would be met in full.
Media reports have said the UN blue-helmets are struggling to keep order and deliver aid after the earthquake wrecked the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and killed as many as 200,000 people.
Earlier, European Union institutions and member states offered more than €400 million in emergency and longer-term assistance to Haiti.
EU Aid and Development Commissioner Karel de Gucht said the aid would include €137 million for short-term needs and at least €200 million for the medium- and longer-term.
A Commission spokesman also said an additional €92 million would be provided by EU member states.
Speaking from Brussels after the meeting Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Peter Power said the State had contributed €2 million in direct aid to Haiti and €20 million to the UN’s Emergency Fund.
Mr Power said two members of the rapid response corps and a technical team were also being sent to the country and that the State had chartered a 747 plane today to transport 85 tonnes of aid.
He said where Ireland could make a real contribution was with its highly skilled, highly trained people. An Irish Army officer will also travel to the country as part of an assessment group of Irish Aid being deployed by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Captain Tim O’Connor will conduct assess the humanitarian situation in the country and make recommendations regarding the Government’s response to the crisis.
As part of the growing relief effort the United States is to send more troops to the ravaged country to help tens of thousands of hungry, thirsty and injured Haitian earthquake survivors waited desperately for promised food and medical care.
Former President Bill Clinton arrived in Haiti today where he met with leaders and delivered humanitarian aid.
Mr Clinton was scheduled to meet with Haiti's president Rene Preval, whose cabinet met outside police headquarters yesterday in a circle of white plastic chairs.
The US Southern Command said some 2,200 Marines with heavy equipment to clear debris, medical aid and helicopters, would join some 5,000 US troops already in the region.
The aim is to have approximately 10,000 US troops in the area to participate in the rescue operation, spokesman Jose Ruiz of the US Southern Command said.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas with an annual per-capita income of $560. It ranks 146th out of 177 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index. More than half the population lives on less than $1 a day and 78 per cent on less than $2.
Mr Preval, said US troops will help UN peacekeepers keep order on the country's increasingly lawless streets, where overstretched police and UN peacekeepers have been unable to provide full security.
Logistical logjams and streets piled with debris have slowed the delivery of medical and food supplies, but there were signs of progress yesterday as international medical teams took over damaged hospitals and clinics where seriously injured and sick people had lain untreated for days.
Rescue teams also raced against time to free survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings, with more successful rescues reported yesterday.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the Security Council would be asked today to approve an increase in the number of UN troops and police in Haiti. Another UN official said an additional 1,250 blue helmets would be sought to help the Haiti contingent, which suffered dozens of dead and missing in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake.
In an indication of the sensitivity of US soldiers operating in a Caribbean state where they have intervened in the past, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez accused Washington of "occupying Haiti undercover."
With people turning more desperate by the day, hundreds of people swarmed shops in downtown Port-au-Prince searching for food and basic supplies.
People fought each other with knives, hammers and rocks and police tried to disperse them with gunfire. At least two people were shot dead, witnesses said. Heavily armed gang members have returned to the Cite Soleil shantytown since breaking out from prison after the quake.
Local mayors, businessmen and bankers told Mr Preval that restoring law and order was essential for reviving at least some commercial activity.
More than 30 countries have rushed rescue teams, doctors, field hospitals, food, medicine and other supplies to Haiti since Tuesday's quake, choking the airspace and the ramp at the small airfield.
Although a few street markets had begun selling vegetables and charcoal, tens of thousands of earthquake survivors across the city were still clamouring for help. There were jostling scrums for food and water as UN trucks distributed food packets and US military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations.
Agencies