"It was not an exaggeration to say that at least 10 years of hard work awaits the world in Haiti," Harper said as international leaders gathered in the wake of the 7.0-magnitude quake which ravaged the Caribbean nation.

"We must work to ensure that every resource committed, every relief worker, every vehicle, every dollar is used as effectively as possible."

He urged donors to start drawing up "the beginning of a plan that will guide reconstruction in Haiti in a way that is effective, coordinated and strategic for the decade to come."

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive earlier said his nation needed help for what he called "this colossal work of reconstruction."

"In 30 seconds, we lost nearly 60 percent of our gross domestic product, because all of Haiti's resources were concentrated in a small area around our seat of government," he said.

"We have to decentralize. It's the only way to be efficient. It's also the only way to avoid the same problems happening in Haiti again."

The talks are aimed at defining key strategies to rebuild the country from the ground up after the January 12 quake, which killed 150,000 people and left one million homeless.

Washington has taken a frontline role in the disaster relief effort, sending in 20,000 troops as well as rescue teams and anchoring a hospital ship offshore to treat injured Haitians.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to address concerns over the US role in supervising the effort. "The international community must ensure we are working in sync. Aid coordination has long been a challenge in Haiti, even before the earthquake," Clinton said.

"We must find better mechanisms for coordination, oversight, and accountability to ensure that aid and investments are used effectively."

In the immediate aftermath of the quake, France charged that US troops were heavy handed at the Port-au-Prince airport, delaying humanitarian operations. On Sunday, Italy's public safety chief criticized the lack of leadership, saying the situation could 'have been managed much better."

Donor countries are seeking to use the groundswell of support for Haiti as an opportunity to transform a country that has historically faced grinding poverty, political corruption and bloodshed.

Diplomats have raised the possibility of a kind of Marshall Plan for the island nation, similar to the US-led postwar reconstruction of Europe, which would take decades and require a huge commitment of resources and money.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said: "Clear vision, coordination and adherence to key principles of aid effectiveness will be essential to accelerate our efforts and avoid duplication."

An umbrella group of Canadian and Haitian aid organizations meanwhile called on donors to cancel Haiti's foreign debt.

"We hope that you use the weight of your governments to convince international financial institutions to cancel Haiti's entire foreign debt," said Eric Faustin, director of Rocahd, the Coalition of Canadian-Haitian Development Organizations.

Ministers and officials from the United Nations also discussed how to streamline delivery of food, water, drugs and medical supplies to people living in makeshift camps around the shattered capital of Port-au-Prince.

Foreign ministers and other officials from Brazil, Chile, France, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Japan and Spain were also present in Montreal for the talks.

They were joined by officials from the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Japan said it would pledge 70 million dollars in aid to Haiti and deploy as many as 300 peacekeepers to the UN mission there.

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