US is not going to take over Haiti, says Obama

United States President Barack Obama on Thursday said that the US cannot ignore the trouble in Haiti, but ruled out taking over the quake-devastated Caribbean nation. "No," Obama told the ABC News in an interview when asked if the US is heading towards a takeover of Haiti.

"We are being very careful about working with the Haitian government. We're being very careful about working with the United Nations, which already had peacekeeping forces on the ground, to deal with the immediate emergency, search and rescue, and relief," the US president said.

Obama has sent more than 10,000 troops and several ships to carry out massive relief and rescue operations in Haiti, where over two lakh people are feared killed due to the devastating earthquake last week.

"There's going to be a longer-term agenda, which is how do you reconstruct a nation that was already incredibly impoverished," Obama said, adding that the basic records of the government has been destroyed.

"The truth is that just the basic instruments of government in that country are gone. We've got to help Haiti stand back up," he said.

The US can't afford not to help Haiti, he argued. "I think the world looks to us as the world's sole superpower, even though sometimes they complain about us, even though they snipe at us, deep down I think they understand that to those to whom much is given, much is expected. And I think the world understands that we have some unique capacities, in terms of helping out people," he said.

Image: Haitians wave to a departing US helicopter after it delivered food and water in Port-au-Prince, Haiti | Photographer: Ho New/Reuters