The relief effort for the survivors of Tuesday's disastrous earthquake in Haiti is still very slow in getting properly underway. Supplies have been flown into the country but it is proving difficult to get them to where they are needed.

A senior member of the United States military says the aid effort is also being hampered by violent incidents. There are reports of looting and attacks.

The organisation of the relief effort is far from perfect. On Sunday, a plane operated by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières failed to get permission to land at Port-au-Prince airport and was diverted to the Dominican Republic. The field hospital it was carrying is now being transported into Haiti by road.

Haitian government figures show 20,000 bodies have so far been recovered. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive believes at least 100,000 people have died.

The International Red Cross is putting the probable death toll at between 45,000 and 50,000. It appears likely that about one and a half million people have lost their homes.

Despite receding hopes of finding survivors of the disaster, rescue workers are continuing to come across people who are still alive. In Port-au-Prince, 40 people have been freed from under a supermarket that had partially collapsed.