Pillagers ran rife in the ruins of the capital while there was no sign of the tent camps promised by authorities for hundreds of thousands of homeless people fleeing to the countryside from the squalor of Port-au-Prince.

Near the destroyed presidential palace as crowds queued under a blazing sun, Immacula Cadet said she was hungry, but was afraid of being hurt in the long lines for food aid if fighting erupts over the handouts.

"I don't want to battle in the road to have a little bread," she told AFP. "We really have problems. We need all that (aid). We need food, we have no water."

More than a million people were left homeless and destitute by the 7.0-magnitude January 12 quake, which destroyed much of the capital city of the desperately poor Caribbean nation.

A massive aid effort has swung into place, but many Haitians say they have yet to receive vital supplies of food or water, with thousands of people regularly converging on informal distribution centers.

Across the city, walls have been scrawled with messages. "We need help. Food, water, medicine," said one in Spanish and English.

Scavengers armed with small handcarts again swarmed across the rubble Wednesday removing anything salvageable, especially wood and metal to help throw up temporary shacks.

Haiti's President Rene Preval said that "nearly 170,000" bodies had now been counted since the quake, significantly higher than previous estimates of 150,000.

"In 15 days many efforts have been made. The National Equipment Company (NEC) has made great efforts in removing nearly 170,000 dead from the streets and clearing the roadways to facilitate traffic," Preval told a press conference.

The International Monetary Fund said it was rushing 114 million dollars in emergency aid to Haiti for essential imports and to make cash available to banks and transfer houses.

It said the amount was the largest amount so far to Haitian authorities since the quake and "will help Haiti cope with the aftermath."

The Haitian government has embarked on program to relocate 500,000 people in villages outside the capital but an AFP reporter said one of the main sites was a vast, gravel wasteland with just a few people hanging about hoping for work.

"We need jobs, but we are angry. The radio told us (the government) is setting up a camp, but there is nothing here," said Saint Louis Clevens, 32, outside the Croix des Bouquets site some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the capital.

US soldiers and Haitian officials insisted that food aid was becoming increasingly available in some areas outside the capital as coordination improves.

"It's getting better everyday," Captain Maurice Green said in the town of Tabarre 10 miles (seven kilometers) east of Port-au-Prince as US supplies were transferred to Haitian pick-up trucks to be moved on to smaller sites.

The United States has poured in some 20,000 troops to the country. The US military said it had begun to hand out 14 million meals and was aiming to supply half a million people with fresh water within a few days.

Ronald Waldman, coordinator of US health efforts in Haiti, said US medics had carried out "thousands" of amputations and that the figure could reach tens of thousands by the end of the relief effort.

Canada said its troops had cleared Haiti's Jacmel airfield of debris in a bid to ease the aid logjam. The main Port-au-Prince airport is under US military control, but aid is still said to be backed up there.

Although the global focus is now on helping the hungry, stunned rescuers Tuesday wrenched a survivor from the rubble after 12 days entombed in the ruins. He was not buried in the quake but in one of the aftershocks.

Dehydrated, covered in dust and with a broken leg, the 31-year-old emerged alive from the ruins of a road called the Rue de Miracles after surviving on small amounts of water.

The UN warned meanwhile that child traffickers and gangsters could try to exploit the chaos triggered by the quake to step up their criminal activities.

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