**Bottlenecks and infrastructure damage have been holding up aid efforts in Haiti, where a devastating earthquake has left as many as 45,000-50,000 dead.**Aid has been arriving from around the world, but there is little sign of help beyond the airport, correspondents say.
Many are spending a third night without shelter or in makeshift camps in the ruined capital, Port-au-Prince.
US President Barack Obama pledged a huge aid effort, but warned it would take time for help to reach people.
President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, working with Brazil, Canada and other countries, will organise a conference on reconstruction in Haiti, the French presidency has announced.
‘Nothing coming’
But on the ground, correspondents said there was little immediate sign of a co-ordinated relief effort.
Planes queued to land at Haiti’s airport, while the port was too damaged to use. Roads were blocked by debris.
AT THE SCENE
Andy Gallacher, BBC News, HaitiHaiti is at a critical juncture at the moment.
I’ve come across two schools that have completely collapsed, you could see the bodies trapped inside - but there were no rescue teams on the ground. I haven’t seen anyone in the two days I’ve been here.
Haitians are still digging through the rubble with their hands. The bodies are beginning to build up, both on the streets and in public spaces.
There are no coffins here, no arrangements for burials. There is no sense that the promised relief efforts have begun in earnest.Haiti desperate for help
Bodies piled up on the streets and bulldozers were being used to remove the dead, and there were reports of mounting frustration and anger.
“We hear on the radio that rescue teams are coming from the outside, but nothing is coming,” said one man, Jean-Baptiste Lafontin Wilfried.
“We only have our fingers to look for survivors.”
The Red Cross estimates 45,000-50,000 people have died since Tuesday’s earthquake.
It estimates that, in total, up to three million people in Haiti have been affected.
Speaking in Washington on Thursday, Mr Obama said some US rescuers were already on the ground in Haiti and more were on their way.
He promised the country “every element of our national capacity, our diplomacy, and development assistance, the power of our military and most importantly, the compassion of our country” following the disaster.
“To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten,” he said.
Race against time
Mr Obama also promised an immediate $100m for Haiti’s relief effort and said that investment would grow over the coming year to aid long-term recovery.
The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and the USS Bataan, carrying a marine expeditionary unit, are on their way to Haiti.
“They want us to provide them with help, which is, of course, what we want to do”
David Wimhurst
UN spokesman
Gen Douglas Fraser, head of the US Southern Command, told reporters that logistics would be the key to providing relief and that US forces would strive to make Port-au-Prince’s port functional again.
The US Federal Aviation Authority earlier temporarily stopped civilian relief flights to Haiti at the Haitian government’s request because there was not enough space on the ground for more planes.
Aid groups say it is a race against time to find people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
UN emergency relief co-ordinator John Holmes said local facilities were overwhelmed, while David Wimhurst, a spokesman for UN peacekeepers in Haiti, said patience among those waiting for aid was wearing thin.
“They want us to provide them with help, which is, of course, what we want to do,” he said.
But they see UN vehicles patrolling the streets to maintain calm, and not delivering aid, and “they’re slowly getting more angry and impatient,” he said.
A British rescue team with heavy lifting gear and dogs has reached Haiti. Other plane-loads of rescuers and relief supplies are being sent from China, the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.
Cuba had more than 300 doctors in Haiti before the earthquake and they have been treating the injured in field hospitals.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who cancelled a trip to Asia to deal with the crisis, said Haiti’s recovery was “going to be a long-term effort”.
The World Bank is funding $100m of emergency aid.
The World Food Programme is working on supplying 15,000 tonnes of food and the Red Cross has begun a $10m appeal.
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