UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon proposed on Sunday the European Union should organize a special mission to Haiti to help with quake relief and reconstruction efforts, said Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandezde la Vega.

Fernandez, whose country is the current holder of the EU presidency, was speaking to press after meeting with Ban and Haitian President Rene Preval in the Haiti capital of Port-au-Prince.

Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, a former Spanish colony, was battered by a 7.3-magnitudeearthquake on Tuesday, with Port-au-Prince being worst hit.

The UN is also considering opening up a so-called humanitarian corridor linking the Dominican Republic to Haiti, in order to boost the flow of aid to the nation, because the Port-au-Prince airport has been overwhelmed by the large number of aircraft arriving from across the world, the Spanish leader said.

Ban arrived in Haiti earlier on Sunday to see first-hand the impact of the catastrophe, to show solidarity with Haitians and UN workers and to speed aid distribution. He said that aid operations in Haiti had been moving slowly.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the quake has killed around 100,000 people.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2010)