World scrambles aid to quake-hit Haiti

Rescue teams, doctors and soldiers rushed by land, sea and air yesterday to help drag survivors of Haiti's devastating earthquake from the rubble and bring its people life-saving food and medicines.

US President Barack Obama promised Haitians they would not be forgotten, offering $100 million to buy life-saving equipment, food, water and medicine, and every element of US power to help them.

"This investment will grow over the coming year as we embark on the long-term recovery from this unimaginable tragedy," he pledged.

Nations from all corners of the world also joined the vast relief operation, as hundreds of thousands of homeless, injured and traumatised awaited help on the corpse-strewn streets and sidewalks of Port-au-Prince.

Planes began arriving at the capital's airport bringing surgeons, field hospitals, water and emergency medical supplies, while search and rescue teams with sniffer dogs readied to pick through the debris.

But the deluge of airborne aid overwhelmed Port au Prince airport, where authorities asked for no more flights to be authorised as the facility was "saturated."

Governments and aid organisations unlocked millions of dollars and launched appeals for more to help survivors and reconstruct ruined homes, schools and hospitals in one of the world's poorest nations.

Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, which flattened much of Port-au-Prince, may have killed more than 100,000 people.

Haiti's ambassador to Spain, Yolette Azor-Charles, said that it would take at least eight days to count the dead from the disaster. "Every day we discover many," she said.

As a wealthy neighbour with the world's most powerful military, the United States was well-placed to lead the effort, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton describing the disaster as "beyond our comprehension."

Former US President Bill Clinton, now UN special envoy to Haiti, appealed for funds for what he said was "one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas".

A US army spokesman said the first members of a brigade of 3,500 US troops began arriving in Haiti, yesterday, while the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was also set to arrive with destroyers and more Coast Guard ships.