There were growing calls to speed up efforts to provide tarps and tents ahead of the rainy season, which threatens to bring more misery to the estimated 1.2 million left homeless by the massive earthquake a month ago.

President Rene Preval stressed the urgent need for shelter in a meeting with visiting USAID chief Rajiv Shah and US General Douglas Fraser on Saturday, said Shah, who pledged to boost distribution of shelter material.

Fraser said troop numbers were now down to 13,000 after a post-earthquake high of more than 20,000, while adding that the Haitian government was taking back control of the Port-au-Prince airport during daylight hours.

The United States had assumed operations there in the chaotic atmosphere immediately after the quake, which killed more than 200,000 people.

"There are roughly 13,000 US military men and women supporting the efforts here in Haiti," Fraser said.

"The international aid and relief efforts have improved and increased in Haiti and we've seen an ability to transition those capabilities to other needs around the world."

Fraser would not provide specifics on how long he expected US troops to remain in Haiti, saying it would depend on needs in the Caribbean nation, which was already the poorest country in the Americas before the quake.

Many have warned that the lack of shelter is the most significant threat facing Haitians with the rainy season starting around May. Conditions at makeshift camps for the homeless are already fast becoming major health concerns.

The UN humanitarian coordinator, Kim Bolduc, said on Friday that the sprawling Champ de Mars camp across from the destroyed National Palace has "turned into an almost dangerous area" due to poor sanitation.

Some 16,000 people are jammed into an area that should hold up to 6,000, she said.

John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator, said 20,000 latrines were needed at camps and only five to 10 percent had been constructed.

The effort to provide shelter has been criticized by many Haitians as coming far too late, and protests over the stumbling aid distribution have been held in various parts of the capital over the past couple of weeks.

The deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti said Friday that many of the homeless are unlikely to have "good shelter" before the rainy season, though aid workers were hoping to provide everyone with some kind of material.

"No matter what, though, it's not going to be pretty," Anthony Banbury told AFP.

"No one should be under any illusions that all million people who have lost their homes are going to be living in comfortable, sturdy shelter by May 1. That's just not going to happen."

Food distribution has worked better in recent days, officials say, with an estimated total of 2.3 million people now having been given some sort of food.

But Haitians still say the aid effort has fallen short.

Richmond Delinois, a 35-year-old owner of a brick-making company, did not lose his house, but some of his workers did and are now living in his yard.

"How long are we going to remain like this?" he said. "The NGOs come, but no one tells us anything."

Meanwhile, the case of 10 Americans charged with kidnapping in the wake of the earthquake here took another turn, with El Salvador police saying they are looking into a man presented as their Dominican lawyer, Jorge Puello.

El Salvador police said they were working to determine if Puello could in fact be Jorge Torres Orellana, who is wanted in the Central American country for allegations of running an international sex trafficking ring.

The ring lured women and girls from the Caribbean and Central America into prostitution with bogus offers of modeling jobs, according to Interpol, which has issued a wanted persons alert for Orellana.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News