The United Nations has increased its humanitarian¹ appeal for Haiti to $1.44bn (£929m) - an all-time high.

联合国对海地的人道主义援助增加至14.4亿美元——有史以来最高的一次援助。

More than one million people were left homeless by the quake

Special envoy² Bill Clinton launched the latest appeal, saying there remained an urgent need for tents, food and water with the rainy season looming³（逼近，隐约可见） .

Earlier UN humanitarian chief John Holmes was critical of the organisation⁴ of international aid since the quake on 12 January that devastated⁵ Haiti.

The last UN record appeal - $1.41bn - was made after the 2004 Asian tsunami⁶.

The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said other priority areas for Haiti included agriculture, health, logistics（后勤） , nutrition, protection, sanitation⁷（卫生设备） and hygiene⁸（卫生学） .

Announcing the new total, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "As the rainy season is coming to Haiti, it will be extremely important to provide on a priority basis shelters, sanitation and other necessary humanitarian assistance."

Former US President Bill Clinton, the UN's special envoy for Haiti, urged people to donate immediately.

"Pledge less and give it. And do it sooner than later," he said at an event to launch the increased appeal.

He said Haitians needed to get out of the cycle of existing day-to-day and become less reliant（依赖的，可靠的） on handouts⁹（讲义，宣传册） .

"They have to be able to go month-to-month. Then we'll try to help them do the rest."

More than 1.2 million people are estimated still to be homeless in Haiti, with some 230,000 killed by the quake.

Donation tracking

Mr Clinton also said his UN special envoy website would allow donors¹⁰ to track where donations where being used.

"It is the beginning of a transparency process that worked so well in the tsunami area that enabled us to build back better. You have a right to hold me accountable for this and to hold our system accountable."

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said help for Haiti required long-term effort for reconstruction¹¹.

"To meet the needs of the people of Haiti will require more of the generous global support that we have seen so far."

Mr Holmes took part in the appeal launch after details on an e-mail he had written criticising the performance of aid agencies in Haiti was leaked to the press.

In the e-mail, Mr Holmes wrote that while a lot had been achieved, much of their efforts had been poorly co-ordinated and resourced, weakening confidence in the agencies' ability to deliver help.

He said major humanitarian needs had not been met, particularly in relation to（关于，涉及） shelter and sanitation.

He said on Thursday that the e-mail was making a "rather technical point" to UN agencies.

"What I was trying to say is there's still a huge amount to do. We need to have the proper cluster（丛，群） co-ordination resources to do that which will go well beyond what are needed in any ordinary disaster."