European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton visited quake-hit Haiti with pledges of long-term aid and sought to defend her delay in making the trip.

"I wouldn't have been helpful, I would have got in the way," Ashton told AFP as she…

… visited an Irish charity's project in one of Port-au-Prince's innumerable makeshift camps set up after the January 12 quake.

She said Europe's initial response had been to send emergency relief and dispatch the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, Kristalina Georgieva, who also joined her in Haiti Wednesday.

"I came now because my job is to build for the long-term. And I'm sure that was the right thing to do. And actually the people I met here today told me it was the right thing to do," she said, cradling a Haitian infant on her lap.

She was speaking in a tent serving as a breast-feeding sanctuary set up by Concern Worldwide, an Irish charity funded through donations and Irish and British subsidies.

"Children are children everywhere, and we have to build this country for their future. It's one of the things that all the foreign ministers across Europe said to me: we have to think about the children."

Ashton, who was criticized in Brussels for not heading out to Haiti soon after the 7.0-magnitude quake, met with Haitian President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive to discuss the country's needs.

While those needs were still being defined, the EU envoy told AFP that "clearing rubble, helping to rebuild infrastructure, roads and schools would be really, really important."

Bellerive stressed at a joint press conference with Ashton and Georgieva that it was "extremely important that the humanitarian roll-out be discussed in detail," but that things were still in a "state of preparation."

During her talks with Haiti's leaders, Ashton emphasized the 100 million euros (135 million dollars) that the European Union released Tuesday to help Haiti tackle its challenges.

She said the latest funds took direct EU aid to more than 120 million euros, out of a tranche of more than 300 million euros committed by Brussels to help Haiti.

National donations by individual EU states raised total European aid to Haiti to 609 million euros (828 million dollars).

Haiti's quake killed more than 222,000 people and left 1.3 million people homeless in and around the capital Port-au-Prince.

International aid has flowed into the desperately poor Caribbean country, with the United States garnering most of the attention for its rapid deployment of its military to assist relief efforts.

"We are in a very critical moment," Georgieva said, though basic needs -- food, water, health services -- are now being met.

"But we are facing the rainy season and hurricanes and we have to be sure that we have sustained support for everybody's need and that we improve the quality of the services provided," she said.

Georgieva also told AFP that "Haiti is and will be on the top of my priority agenda as commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis response."

The immense scale of the disaster was staggering, she said, but it also "actually provides an opportunity to put the country on a better footing for the future."

EU officials in Haiti told AFP that Georgieva was planning to go on to Chile to examine aid needs in that country, which was hit by a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake on Saturday.

***