Wyclef Jean, one of Haiti's most celebrated musicians, has ignited a flurry of donations on Wednesday simply by tweeting about the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which devastated the island nation on Tuesday.

On the popular social networking site, Twitter, Jean urged people to send a text to his Haitian charity, Yele, to donate US$ 5 to assist in relief efforts.

It is unclear how much money has been raised. A call to Yele headquarters in New York resulted several times in a busy signal.

Twitter is awash in retweets of Jean's call for help. In less than five minutes on the site, more than 600 new messages popped up.

According to local media reports, Jean arrived in Haiti on Wednesday.

The musician, who was raised in Brooklyn, New York City, is most famous for his work with the group the Fugees. Last March, Jean accompanied United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former US President Bill Clinton to tour the impoverished nation.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2010)