The American-led relief operation in Haiti is coming in for criticism as the confirmed death toll from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince alone has risen above 150,000.

Plans to move 400,000 Haitians out of the capital and into new villages are being criticised by charities and aid groups.

The mass relocation was announced last week. Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said: “A large operation is taking place, we’re in the process of relocating homeless people.”

The decision was triggered by overcrowding in parks and public spaces where there is little sanitation.

But there are fears this strategy could be harmful to the many thousands of people involved. Oxfam says moving them en masse will create huge security problems. The charity is calling for smaller, safer camps to be set up instead.

Oxfam is also urging foreign ministers to cancel Haiti’s national debt and for more support to be channelled to farmers and small businesses.

It warned Haiti was now dependent on imports for 40 per cent of its food, with the planting season just two weeks away.

The head of Italy’s civil protection service Guido Bertolaso, who is in Haiti to co-ordinate relief efforts, has also criticised the aid operation. He told reporters there are too many American soldiers on the streets, with little or no expereince in dealing with a civilian crisis.

Meanwhile Canada is hosting a meeting of “foreign ministers and key multilateral players” to discuss plans for an international aid conference.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner will examine debt forgiveness and a strategy to rebuild from a quake that killed up to 200,000 people.

“We are all looking at the terrible situation in your country, and the task ahead of you is unimaginable,” Harper told Bellerive in Ottawa ahead of the one-day Haiti conference in Montreal.

“So you’re not alone. We’ll be working together… in the weeks, months and years to come to rebuild your country.”

Jon Snow writes:
In the entire six hour run to Santa Domingo, we never saw a single “aid convoy”. I can’t explain this. I have asked the UN, I have asked the Americans and they say the aid flow is normal and active.

Even the airport itself in Santa Domingo did not look unduly busy. I guess in the end the sheer difficulty of moving stuff across the earthquake ruins means that there is some restriction on how much aid you can cope with on the ground.

It’s one of many unresolved questions about the quake and its aftermath.

I spoke to an earthquake expert who told me candidly that Port-au-Prince had been on a watch list, as “about to blow”, for several years. There are ten spots on the list.