U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from several U.S. allies on Monday met in Montreal, Canada to work out a plan for the reconstruction of Haiti. The meeting comes two weeks after a massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake devastated the impoverished island nation of Haiti, leaving more than 150,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of others homeless, hungry and wounded. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and officials from the United Nations attended the emergency talks. "Together with the government of Haiti, we need to roll up our sleeves and begin to lay the groundwork for the enormous task ahead. We must and we need to arrive at a common understanding and commitment on certain basic principles of responsibility, accountability, and long term engagement," Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, founder of the international charity Doctors Without Borders, also is participating in the six-hour, closed-door discussions. The ministers will discuss how to streamline the delivery of food, water, drugs, and medical supplies to the swelling number of people living in makeshift camps around the shattered capital of Port-au-Prince. Foreign ministers and officials from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Japan and Spain participated in the meeting, along with officials from the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Japan said Monday it would pledge $70 million in aid to Haiti and deploy as many as 300 peacekeepers to the U.N. mission there.
