The U.N. food agency reached an agreement today with the U.S.-run airport in the Haitian capital to give aid flights priority in landing _ a deal that came after the U.S. military was criticized for giving top billing to military and rescue aircraft, according to AP. At an emergency meeting in Brussels, meanwhile, the European Union's 27 nations pledged more than ¤400 million ($575 million) to help quake survivors and rebuild the Caribbean nation after last week's massive earthquake. The United States has taken over the Port-au-Prince airspace and incoming flights have to register with the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. But an air slot system similar to one used during the Indonesian tsunami emergency and the Pakistan earthquake has been established to make sure that planes carrying food and medicine get priority in landing, World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran told reporters. «Even though the slots are limited and the need is great, we now have the coordination mechanism to prioritize the humanitarian flights coming in,» Sheeran said. Over the weekend, the aid group Doctors Without Borders complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck at the airport amid reports that U.S. military flights were getting priority. French, Brazilian and other officials complained about the airport's refusal to let their aid planes land, forcing many flights to end up in the neighboring Dominican Republic, a day's drive away. On Monday, French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet urged the United Nations to investigate the dominant U.S. role in the relief operation, claiming that international aid efforts were supposed to be about helping Haiti, not «occupying» it. Haitians have complained that food, medicine and water have been woefully slow in reaching them. Sheeran, however, said the WFP aid pipeline is on track compared to previous natural disasters in terms of aid distribution and insisted aid distribution was improving «hour by hour.» The U.N. has estimated that 3 million Haitians _ one-third of the country's population _ were affected by the Jan. 12 quake and 2 million require food assistance. WFP reported that 67,000 people in Haiti received food Sunday and 97,000 were expected to get ready-to-eat meals on Monday.
