Italy official: Haiti relief effort 'pathetic'

Italy's top disaster official has called the Haiti quake-relief effort a "pathetic" failure, criticizing the militarized approach of the US as ineffective and out of touch for the emergency at hand.

Guido Bertolaso, Italy's well-respected civil protection chief, said Sunday that what was needed was a single international civilian coordinator to take charge, and for individual countries and aid agencies to stop flying their flags and posing for TV cameras and get to work.

"Unfortunately there's this need to make a 'bella figura' before the TV cameras rather than focus on what's under the debris," said Bertolaso, who won praise for his handling of Italy's 2009 quake in Abruzzo.

In particular, he criticized what he called the well-meaning but ineffective US-run military operation. The US military has more than 2,000 troops on the ground, helping to deliver humanitarian aid.

US officials have defended their presence and dismissed such criticism, which has most vocally been leveled by leftist Latin American leaders.

The American presence and willingness to send in a floating hospital, cargo planes, troops and aid was "commendable" and absolutely necessary, Bertolaso told Italy's RAI state television from Port-au-Prince. "Unfortunately it's a massive presence, but it's not been used in the best way," he said, criticizing the fact that American military officers were running a civilian relief operation.