U.N. Chief Wants More Haiti Peacekeepers

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he wants to beef up the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti with 1,500 additional police and 2,000 troops to better respond to the massive earthquake.

Ban says he asked the U.N. Security Council on Monday to raise the ceiling for the force, which currently has about 7,000 troops and 2,100 police. He says the extra troops would be needed for six months.

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France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud says he expects the council to approve a resolution Tuesday raising the ceiling.

Ban told reporters after briefing the council on his trip Sunday to the Haitian capital that two challenges stand out - unclogging bottlenecks to deliver aid quickly and coordination.

Meanwhile, the U.N. food agency has reached an agreement with the U.S.-run airport in Haiti's capital to give priority to humantarian aid flights.

The deal came after the U.S. military was criticized for letting its planes and rescue aircraft land first.

The head of the World Food Program says an air slot system has been established to make sure that planes carrying food and medicine get top priority. A similar system was used after the Indonesian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake.

The U.S. military has taken over the airport in Port-au-Prince and incoming flights have to register with the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

Over the weekend, the aid group Doctors Without Borders complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck. French, Brazilian and other officials complained that the airport refused to let their aid planes land, diverting many flights to the Dominican Republic, a day's drive away.