World leaders hold Haiti disaster talks

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Haiti’s prime minister and foreign ministers from a host of nations will meet today in a bid to improve relief efforts in the quake-ravaged country.

Canadian foreign minister Lawrence Cannon said the conference in Montreal, the international community’s first meeting since Haiti’s devastating earthquake on January 12, would review the progress of aid delivery and lay the groundwork for a larger meeting focusing on long-term reconstruction.

Haitian prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive arrived in Canada yesterday for a meeting with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper.

“The task ahead of you is unimaginable,” Mr Harper told him before the two began private talks.

“I say to you, Jean-Max, as a fellow prime minister, I just can’t imagine.”

Mr Bellerive expressed his gratitude to Canada and said he came to discuss the support that would be needed.

“But we are fully conscious that the prime responsibility for our future lies in the hands of the Haitian government and the Haitian people,” he added.

Mr Harper will convene with foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries, eight international bodies and six major non-governmental organisations.

“It’s not a donor or pledging conference,” Mr Cannon said. “It’s to make sure we have an action plan.

“We want to co-ordinate better in the short term and make sure we all know who is doing what and how.”

Mr Cannon said one goal was to “physically get the Haitian government back on its feet”.

The quake destroyed key government buildings, including the National Palace, hampering the work of what was already a weak and inefficient state.

“They don’t have any offices,” Mr Cannon said. “I was chatting with Mrs Clinton the other day. She mentioned that an American government building remained intact and said they were turning it over to the Haitian government so that they could at least set up temporary offices.”

Mr Cannon said the first session would focus on aid efforts with ministers hearing from Bellerive, the United Nations and non-governmental agencies like the Red Cross.

Ministers will meet later in the day to work on the steps needed ahead of the larger reconstruction conference, where money will be pledged.

Governments have pledged nearly $1bn (€700m) in aid to Haiti, according to one estimate,, including €410m from European Union nations.

Today’s meeting comes as a global army of aid workers was delivering more food into people’s hands in Haiti, but the efforts were still falling short.

United Nations World Food Programme chief Josette Sheeran, visiting the capital Port-au-Prince, said aid groups wished they could do more, and faster.

One Haitian government official said more than 150,000 victims had been buried by the government and that nobody knew how many bodies were buried in the rubble.

Canada has deep ties to Haiti. More than 100,000 people of Haitian descent live in Canada, most of them in Montreal.

After the Montreal meeting, Mr Bellerive will travel to Ottawa to meet Canada’s Haitian-born governor general Michaelle Jean.

Ms Jean, the Queen’s representative as Canada’s head of state, broke down in tears during a press conference after the earthquake, saying it was as if an atomic bomb had fallen on Port-au-Prince.