PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed Saturday the United States stood ready to help the quake-stricken nation of Haiti "today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

"We are here at the invitation of your government to help you," Clinton told a press conference after meeting Haiti's President Rene Preval at the base set up for the massive relief operations in the Haitian capital.

"As President (Barack) Obama has said we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead," she pledged.

The top US diplomat said she and Preval would be issuing a statement on Sunday "setting forth our intention to work together."

She told Haitians: "You have been severely tested, but I believe that Haiti can come back even stronger and better in the future."

Officials estimate 50,000 people were killed and 1.5 million left homeless in the 7.0-magnitude quake which rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

AFP, January 16, 2010