The United Nations appealed on Friday to the Haitian government and rebels who have staged a week-long revolt to guarantee safe passage to food and medicine deliveries to avert a humanitarian disaster.
UN officials said more than 200,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean country, already dependent on aid, were in danger of going hungry after an armed gang opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide seized the city of Gonaives and cut off the north.
Hospitals that were short of medicines and blood plasma had run out of medical supplies, as demand for them increased because of the fighting between the rebels and militant government supporters.
"The problem is that before the crisis, Haiti was already in crisis," Gerard Gomez, the Americas and Caribbean regional disaster response adviser for the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Haiti's opposition against ousting Aristide, who was restored to power a decade ago by a US invasion.
"We will accept no outcome that in any way illegally attempts to remove the elected president of Haiti," Powell told reporters after hosting a crisis meeting with mediators.
He also said the United States, Canada and Caribbean nations were discussing whether foreigners could be sent to bolster Haiti's police force. But Powell said there was no plan at this point for military intervention to quell the violence.
UN country co-ordinator Adama Guindo said in Port-au-Prince that the agency was chartering a barge to ship 1,000 tonnes of cereals to the northern city of Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest, and would ask local authorities there to ensure the safety of food distribution to remote areas.
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