The government's idea, which it will present formally to a meeting of donor nations in New York in March "is to take a general overview of the country, not only where the physical damage happened but also to incorporate the reconstruction of Haiti into a global development programme," he said, stressing the need to strengthen the provinces by providing job and agricultural opportunities to those people, many of whom migrated from the countryside in the first place.

Some 3 million people, a third of the total Haitian population, lived in Port-au-Prince when the devastating earthquake struck on January 12, killing up to 200,000 people, injuring many more, leaving 2 million in need of aid and destroying much of the city. The UN itself suffered heavy casualties when its headquarters collapsed. The UN casualty toll now stands at 92 dead, seven unaccounted for and 30 injured.

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Based on the given information and photographs taken, workers will begin to trace the families of these children, if they exist. A similar registry was used after the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and more recently in cyclone-hit Myanmar.

The Haitian government estimates that up to 60,000 children have been affected by the earthquake. UNICEF expects to register several thousand children in the coming weeks.

UNICEF and its partners now have the capacity to house 900 children and are surveying new locations.

Since the quake, there have been reports in the media of rushed or even illegal adoptions and possible human trafficking. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is conducting investigations into alleged kidnappings.

"We need a coherent political strategy - not as an add-on to the military strategy, but which guides it as part of a balanced civilian and military approach, with peace and reconciliation as an integral component."

Some 70 nations met in London to discuss the way forward in Afghanistan following last year's elections, in which Mr. Karzai won another term as President.

The long road ahead towards recovery and institution-building, Mr. Ban said, must be inclusive, must strengthen governance, respect the human rights and meet the basic needs of the Afghan people. It must also foster an environment conducive to justice and accountability, an environment where corruption cannot thrive.

He added that despite the increasingly complex security environment, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), together with other UN partners, remains committed - for as long as necessary - to the Afghan people's pursuit of peace and prosperity.

The North African nation resisted French colonial policies during World War II, refusing to exclude Jews from public functions and not making them wear the yellow Star of David, as had been decreed by the Vichy regime in German-occupied France.

Efforts to whitewash the Holocaust are "a wound to the collective memory, which we know is engraved in one of the most painful chapters in the collective history of mankind," King Mohammed VI said in a message to a briefing today at UN Headquarters in New York.

"A message about the triumph of the human spirit. A living testament that tyranny, though it may rise, will surely not prevail," he said.

Estimates vary but about 6 million Jews are thought to have been killed in the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis, as well as countless numbers of Roma, Slavs, homosexuals, disabled people, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists and political dissidents.

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