The "Friends of Haiti" meeting focused on coordinating aid to the Caribbean country, where more than 100,000 people were killed and an estimated 3 million people have been severely affected by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes and the acting UN representative in Haiti Edmond Mulet were among the high-ranking UN officials taking part in the gathering.

"In Montreal, it is important for there to be a commitment to fund all aspects of the flash appeal, including those intended for the early recovery needs of Haiti," said Miss Clark, referring to the $575 million UN flash appeal for Haiti launched on 15 January, three days after the quake.

As of Friday, $241 million, or roughly 40 percent, of the $575 million UN flash appeal had been received.

The money is intended to benefit those hardest hit in Haiti, already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

On Thursday, Ms. Clark and Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy to Haiti, will take part in a special session at the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland. The session is expected to focus on the private sector's role in boosting investment to Haiti.

According to media reports, an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane with about 80 travelers and 10 crew members went down into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut airport en route for Addis Ababa in a strong storm.

At the request of the Lebanese authorities, the maritime task force of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) dispatched two ships to the crash site as well as two helicopters.

The maritime fleet has been deployed since 2006 in the wake of that year's war between Israel and Hizbollah, and is tasked with helping the navy secure its territorial waters and prevent the unauthorized entry of arms or related material by sea into Lebanon.

Last month the task force rescued at least 35 crew members from a cargo ship that capsized in rough seas about 10 nautical miles from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, and the week before it saved another crew member from a merchant ship that had sunk off the southern Lebanese coast. In 2008 the force rescued 14 people from a disabled vessel.

Since last December, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered 15,508 new internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled the troubled eastern province of North Kivu.

UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters that this latest wave of displacement brings to 116,000 the population of camps in and around Kitchanga. The agency is currently managing 47 IDP camps in the region, providing protection and assistance.

Fierce fighting has persisted in eastern DRC, particularly in North and South Kivu, where Hutu militants blamed for the Rwandan genocide of 1994 have fled. Last year the Congolese Government launched several offensives targeting the group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), with logistical support from the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUC).

UNHCR estimates that there are some 2.1 million IDPs in eastern DRC where it says harassment, human rights abuses, rapes and intimidations against civilians are regularly reported by the local population.

The visit to New York, including meetings with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, followed stops in Atlanta, where they met with former US President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center, as well as Washington D.C., for visits to the White House and other national monuments.

While in Washington, the Gaza students traveled to Capitol Hill where they met with Rep. Brian Baird (D-Washington), pictured right, and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota).

The group, which included 15 Palestinian eighth graders and three of their teachers, are the top achievers in the human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance program taught in Gaza by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The agency operates one of the largest school systems in the Middle East, with nearly 700 schools, and has been the main provider of primary education to Palestine refugees for 60 years.