By: Caribbean World News Monday March 15,

The United Nation`s flash appeal for Haiti is so far less than 50 percent funded.

That`s the word from United Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited Haiti Sunday ahead of the March 31st donors` conference for the quake-devastated country in New York.

Ban revealed that only 49 percent of the $1.4 billion appeal has been funded to date, even as Haiti continues to grapple with the after effects of the January 12th quake.

But the UN SG remains optimistic, noting: `I know that the international community can, and will, provide the resources necessary for an effective effort, well-coordinated and properly supported, to help and the Haitians to rise and to construct a better future.`

Shelter remains the biggest and most urgent priority in Haiti two months after the catastrophic earthquake that claimed as many as 230,000 lives.

Ban on Sunday met with President René Préval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and toured a camp that is home to tens of thousands of internally displaced persons.

`The most urgent challenge right now is shelter, shelter, shelter – coupled with sanitation. At this moment we have supplied tents and tarpaulins to approximately 60 per cent of the 1.3 million people in need. We aim to reach everyone by the end of April,` said the SG adding that Haiti also faces urgent funds for schools, roads, port, power and other forms of infrastructure.

`For the foreseeable future, the government will need international assistance simply to cover its payroll – teachers, police, doctors and nurses, civil servants and basic services,` he added.  `I assured President Préval and his ministers that I will continue my best personal efforts to fulfill the remainder, particularly for such under-funded programs as early recovery and agriculture? Even if time passes, the world has not forgotten. The world is always at their side.`

Preval, who was in Washington last week for meetings with President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said that Haiti needs some US$14 billion to rebuild.