US troops are fanning out across Haiti as aid operations gather momentum¹, a week after the devastating² earthquake.

海地大地震一星期之后，美国部队在海地灾区成扇形展开救援行动。

UN officials said aid distribution分配，分布 points were being set up in the capital and UN security forces would accompany US troops as they delivered supplies.

Helicopters dropped scores of US troops in the presidential palace grounds, who then moved to secure a nearby hospital.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has voted to boost its peacekeeping forces to help control outbursts爆发 of looting抢劫，洗劫.

Anger has been growing in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as people wait for help.

The US military has begun delivering food and water to distribution points in the capital and elsewhere by helicopter, after congestion³充血，拥挤 at the airport delayed deliveries of aid.

Some 14,000 ready-to-eat meals and 15,000 litres of water were dropped north-east of Port-au-Prince on Monday, the US said.

Meanwhile, the UN has approved a recommendation推荐，建议 by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to boost UN troop numbers in Haiti by 2,000 for six months, and UN police numbers by 1,500.

Mr Ban said he was grateful to the UN Security Council for its swift action, calling it "a clear signal that the world is with Haiti".

He said the UN was in discussion with member states, and he hoped to have the extra troops and police to deploy配置，部署 soon. The UN mission in Haiti currently numbers about 9,000.

There have been reports of widespread violence and looting.

But the UN has played down贬低，降低 worries over security, saying that despite violent incidents, the overall situation is calm.

US Army Maj Gen Daniel Allyn, deputy commander of the Joint⁵ Task Force on ongoing⁶ relief efforts, echoed that message, saying the security situation was "relatively⁷ calm" and that aid distribution points were orderly.

He said there were "pockets of instability", but that UN forces and the Haitian national police were addressing security needs with "agility敏捷，灵活".

There were more than 2,000 US personnel on the ground and 5,000 offshore⁸近海的 on ships, he said, adding that 10,000 troops in total would be arriving in the coming weeks, half of whom would be directly involved in distributing humanitarian⁹ aid人道主义援助.

Mr Ban said the UN's goal was to increase the number of people receiving food to one million this week and at least two million in the following two weeks.

Addressing concern that aid has been too slow to reach desperate Haitians, Mr Ban said the situation on the ground was "overwhelming" but that UN efforts were "gearing up quickly".

"For those who have lost everything, of course, help cannot come soon enough," Mr Ban said. "But we are working day and night."