PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Secretary of State  Hillary Clinton assured Haiti’s quake-ravaged people yesterday the United States would work with their government to  ensure the country emerges “stronger and better” after this  week’s disaster.

“We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead,”  Clinton told a news conference at Port-au-Prince airport,  saying she wanted to speak directly to the Haitian people after  a meeting with their President Rene Preval.

“You have been severely tested. But I believe that Haiti  can come back even stronger and better in the future,” she  said.

Preval expressed gratitude for the huge relief effort that  has unfolded after Tuesday’s earthquake, which killed tens of  thousands of people and left devastated Haiti’s ramshackle  capital.

“Mrs Clinton’s visit really warms our heart today,” Preval  said through an interpreter, adding that it would help to  establish the priorities and coordination necessary to keep the  relief work running.

Clinton underscored that the US aid drive — involving  thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines along with civilian  aid workers — was done at the invitation of Haiti’s government  and said she and Preval would issue a joint communique today outlining the way forward.

As the sound of aircraft bearing relief supplies  momentarily drowned out the microphone, Clinton was upbeat.

“That’s a good sound,” Clinton said. “That means good  things are coming and helping the people of Haiti,” she said.

Clinton’s quick one day trip is designed to avoid  complicating the relief effort, with hundreds of thousands of  Haitians still desperately waiting for assistance as scavengers  and looters take advantage of the widespread absence of  authority and order.

Clinton first flew to the Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen  in Puerto Rico, where she transferred to a Coast Guard C-130  transport plane carrying emergency food and water rations along  with toothbrushes, doughnuts, underwear and other supplies for  US embassy personnel.

She was due to evacuate some 50 US citizens when she  left yesterday.

Clinton said the relief drive was aimed at immediate needs  such as water, food and medical help along with on-going rescue  work for people still trapped in the rubble.

She said she and Preval had also discussed the future,  which US officials say could involve a major international  effort to improve conditions in Haiti, which remains the  poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Before her arrival, Clinton told reporters travelling with  her that the Haitian government, itself battling to recover  from the quake, had given the US government leeway to meet  emergency needs.

But she said this could be further expedited if the Haitian  parliament passes a decree granting Preval’s government more  emergency powers — some of which could be delegated to the  United States — such as imposing a curfew.

She said the United States would continue to work with both  the Haitian government and the United Nations, which has about  7,000 peacekeepers on the island and primary responsibility for  security.

“We are working to back them up, but not to supplant them,”  she said.

The United Nations announced yesterday that the chief of  its mission in Haiti had also perished in the earthquake, along  with his deputy.