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Haiti: The United Nations announced Friday that its chief Ban Ki-moon would go to Haiti on Sunday to assess humanitarian needs and appealed to the international community to raise $ 562 million intended to help the Haitians.

Mr. Ban will travel to Haiti during a visit of 24 hours to show "solidarity with the Haitian people and UN personnel" on site, very affected by the earthquake.

On Friday, the organization brought the balance of the earthquake in Haiti among its staff to 37 confirmed deaths and 330 missing.

In contrast, death in the rubble of the hotel Christopher Head of the peacekeeping mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the Tunisian Hedi Annabi, had still not confirmed Friday. "There are hundreds of missing persons in the hotel, and research is ongoing," said the spokesman of the UN, Martin Nesirky.

The organization estimates that 3 million the number of Haitians who need assistance.

The appeal for donations has been formally launched at the organization's headquarters in New York by the director of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations, John Holmes.

These funds will be made available to provide emergency food, medical supplies, water and tents, "said Holmes.

A score of countries, institutions and companies have already committed themselves to the tune of 268.5 million, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

A Haitian minister said Friday that more than 50,000 people were killed, 250,000 injured and 1.5 million left homeless in Haiti following the devastating earthquake last Tuesday. More than 15,000 bodies have already been collected and buried, said Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

Half of the money collected will go to food aid, of which two million people need urgent, "said Holmes.

"According to our estimates, 3 million people are severely affected by the consequences of the earthquake, about 9 million people in the country," he added. "30% of buildings in Port-au-Prince have suffered, and in some areas half the buildings are either destroyed or uninhabitable and loose," said John Holmes had a little earlier during a press briefing.

"We must rapidly establish refugee camps with points of water and food," he said.

Water is a major concern, and trucks of UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) began to bring in supplies of disinfectant tablets.

The United Nations also plans to set up schools in camps.

The main warehouse of the World Food Program (WFP) in Port-au-Prince, containing 6,000 tons of food aid, has been damaged by the earthquake, but not robbed as initially feared the agency, said John Holmes.

WFP is preparing to send supplies tailored to the situation, including millions of kits to eat without cooking. If the priority is "the search and rescue of survivors" still caught under the rubble, Mr. Holmes acknowledged that there was very little hope.

The International Red Cross estimated between 40 and 50,000 deaths.