Haiti have launched a huge operation to move hundreds of thousands of homeless people outside the ruined capital, as hopes of finding more survivors fade nine days after the devastating quake.

Medics treated the countless injured in makeshift hospitals as gangrene began to set in, and fresh looting broke out in devastated Port-au-Prince even as some signs of normal life returned.

"It is difficult to work as before, but we're on course to regain control," President Rene Preval told reporters, seeking to counter charges that the government has been largely absent since the January 12 disaster.

Alongside the Haitian plan, French and US rescue workers have begun to clear debris and human waste from around the city's ceremonial square, the Champ de Mars, which has become a giant ad hoc refugee camp.

Living like "animals"

"We want to stop living like animals," said Carole Deslouis, who finally received the promise of food and shelter in the square Thursday after days of washing her children with filthy water and begging for rice.

US forces are also repairing the main port, hoping to slowly reopen it from Friday and bring in enough aid to feed people across the country, and brought in a temporary control tower for the country's overburdened main airport.

The 7.0-magnitude quake has killed at least 75 000 and left a million homeless.

Haiti's government said it would try to relocate an estimated 500 left destitute, moving them out of squalid, stinking bivouacs into temporary accommodation outside Port-au-Prince.

"The government has made available to people free transportation. A large operation is taking place: we're in the process of relocating homeless people," said Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime.

New villages

The government will hire about 34 buses to take quake victims to the south and north of the Caribbean nation to hastily set up villages designed to hold 10 000 people each, and work with local mayors to identify sites.

Rescue teams from around the world still combed the debris for survivors in and around Port-au-Prince, after two children were rescued alive on Wednesday, but Thursday brought no new signs of life from beneath the silent debris.

Those pulled from the rubble still face a desperate fight for survival.

Around two dozen orphans, adopted by French families, were due to be flown out of the city later Thursday, despite concerns from children's aid groups that fast-track procedures could lead to families being broken up forever.

Tens of thousands of Haitians remain seriously wounded in makeshift field hospitals set up in tents on the ruins of the ravaged capital.

Poor conditions

International doctors, working in miserable conditions lacking supplies and modern equipment, have carried out scores of amputations to save victims with serious crush wounds or to repair internal injuries.

A 1000-bed capacity US naval hospital ship is moored off Haiti with about 800 medical personnel and has begun taking the worst of the injured.

The International Organisation for Migration estimated that at least half a million people are now living outdoors in improvised camps, and warned the number was climbing as people flood in from damaged villages.

Thousands of US troops have poured into Haiti with 20 000 expected on the ground or offshore by Sunday. Other nations have pledged security forces to help distribute aid, provide medical treatment and keep the streets secure from looters.

General Douglas Fraser, the head of US Southern Command, said the extra US troops would "give us an increased capacity to move humanitarian supplies throughout the country."

Three amphibious ships will support the deployment, along with a helicopter squadron, a tilt-rotor squadron and medical personnel and facilities, the US military said.

Repairs to the port

The main port was to open partially, despite strong signs of damage, including buckled wharves, leaning telephone poles and slanting cranes, with US Navy and US Army divers due to start repairing its pier Friday.

The World Bank said it would waive Haiti's debt payments for the next five years, and study efforts to cancel the nation's remaining debt of about $38-million.

Prices have soared on the streets amid general shortages. Anyone who managed to stash extra food, petrol or cigarettes can now get rich, quick.

"I had several cans of gasoline at home for a factory on my property and I have been selling them little by little," said Ludovic. "It's 400 Haitian gourdes (about $10 ), no haggling," he said, pricing a can at twice what it fetched before the quake.

World powers will discuss plans to rebuild the country at a major donor conference on Monday in Montreal.