Although there have been some teething problems, officials believe the tool could greatly speed relief efforts.

“The humanitarian agencies have some catching up to do when it comes to things like Skype and hand-held e-mail,” said Alex Wynter, a Red Cross spokesman in Haiti. “But in the base camps, we’re connected and disaster relief is going online.”

Users with Google Earth on their computer can go to the Web site, http://www.cccmhaiti.info, where a link offers a map of many of the 414 tent sites, churches, government buildings, schools and refugee camps that have sprung up since the Jan. 12 tremor that killed over 200,000 people.

Over a normal Google Earth screen of Haiti, blue spots appear showing where Haitians have settled. Some are named by street, zone or landmark, and others are simply numbered as “IDP” — internally displaced persons — camps.

Each blue spot can be clicked on, calling up an information box that gives a site’s longitude and latitude, commune and estimated number of families and individuals. The details are updated regularly so that, in theory, charities and government officials can foresee aid shortfalls, and potential dangers such as landslides and floods.

“It is the first time a tool of such sophistication has been deployed in such short order by humanitarian actors after a major emergency,” said Jean-Philippe Chauzy, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, which teamed with Google, the U.N. and humanitarian information body iMMAP on the project.

Aid workers from a number of agencies are already updating the system, Chauzy said.

But it still has shortcomings, reflecting the tangled web of aid groups involved in providing humanitarian assistance in Haiti, as after any major disaster, and older systems for sharing information. Though it’s hardly technically challenging, separate pages still must be consulted to find out about the conditions, needs and agencies responsible for helping each group of people.

Aid officials say the information should be harmonized, and made accessible with a simple mouse click on Google Earth once enough staff have been trained and the program develops.

“That’s the next logical step,” conceded Brian Kelly, a senior IOM official involved in the project.

Kelly said in an interview Tuesday that the project aims to give policymakers and common citizens a better understanding of how complicated aid operations work. While few Haitians have Internet access, he claimed the project would allow people directly affected by future catastrophes to help identify shortages.

“It gives you a quick snapshot: ‘Hey, look, there’s no water there,’” Kelly said. “When something happens, the initial questions we ask are: ‘Where is everyone? How are they living? What services are they getting?’”

Chauzy said IOM mapping experts started the project shortly after the earthquake, with civil engineers and Haitian geographers who had extensive knowledge of local boundaries and street names. The cooperation with Google was a key step up from previous mapping exercises, which used PDF files that were less user-friendly and less accessible.

Google’s offices in Switzerland and Germany wouldn’t comment, but U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs praised the company for delivering images so quickly after the earthquake, first by satellite and then enhanced by shots from the ground.

“These satellite images were crucial,” Byrs said.

She said the site was populated with information from “all existing sources at that time.” The U.N. then developed a “common language” for aid workers updating the information.

Chauzy said he hoped the maps could serve a key purpose in coming weeks by helping aid officials identify safer places to house Haitians during the rainy season, when floods and landslides pose a threat.

The system’s long-term future advantages are clear. There should be less duplication of aid efforts, greater information for donors asking where their money is going, and less complicated coordination meetings — which aid officials say are often too time-consuming.

“A lot of time and effort goes into logistics. If you don’t know what’s coming, where to take it, you are in trouble,” Kelly said. “We need to understand, not in month three but in week two, where people have moved and what their conditions are. This is going to cut through a lot of bureaucracy.”

“There’s probably 3 million people potentially affected,” said Paul Conneally, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

The first airlifts to Haiti concentrated on search and rescue efforts and setting up makeshift hospitals.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States was offering full assistance — civilian and military. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain would provide “whatever humanitarian assistance is required,” while France, Canada, China, Germany, Mexico and Venezuela pledged immediate support in terms of personnel, cash and supplies.

Germany said it would donate euro1 million ($1.45 million), while China pledged $1 million.

One of the first teams expected to arrive Wednesday was 37 search and rescue specialists from Iceland, who are bringing with them 10 tons of their own equipment.

French rescue authorities say 65 clearing specialists and 6 sniffer dogs are leaving for Haiti on Wednesday, while Spain is rushing three airplanes to Haiti with at least 100 tons of tents, blankets and cooking kits. Israel is sending in an elite Army rescue unit of engineers and medics.

The Red Cross said Haiti’s disaster relief teams were “completely overwhelmed.”

“There’s no structured response at this point,” spokesman Simon Schorno told The Associated Press.

The United Nations is also deploying a disaster coordination team to Haiti.

Officials were struggling to assess the scale of the disaster amid badly damaged communication networks, said Elizabeth Byrs, a U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman, but it was working with aid agency Telecoms Sans Frontieres to immediately get phone lines working.

There is no electricity in the capital, and roads are filled with obstacles and debris, she added. Port-au-Prince’s airport remains open, but the artery connecting it to the city is blocked, so aid officials were still trying to decide on the best way to rush lifesaving assistance.

U.N. agencies and Red Cross societies were trying to send in teams and aid from their regional hub in Panama, while USAID is mobilizing a response group and two urban search and rescue units, Byrs said.

If aid cannot travel over the airport road, assistance may be rerouted through the Dominican Republic, said Charles Vincent, a senior World Food Program official, whose agency plans to airlift tons of high-energy biscuits from El Salvador, enough to feed 30,000 people for a week.

“The first priority is to save lives,” Vincent told reporters.

Byrs said the neighboring Haitian cities of Carrefour and Jacmel may also be heavily damaged.

Conneally said his estimate of the Haitians affected relied on previous Red Cross experience in earthquake relief.

“Port-au-Prince has been massively impacted,” Conneally said. “There are many, many people trapped in the rubble.”

He said emergency shelter and long-term rebuilding efforts could easily require a year of aid work.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for a generous international aid response for the quake victims and pledged the Catholic Church’s support.

The Christian aid organization World Vision, which has 400 staff in Haiti, said it would immediately distribute supplies it had stored in Haiti for hurricane relief.

Low-lying areas of Port-au-Prince, including the Cite Soleil slum, appeared to be hit worse than neighborhoods higher up the hills, said World Vision spokesman Casey Calamusa.

Maggie Boyer, the World Vision spokeswoman in Haiti, said the moment the quake hit felt “like a truck had run into her building,” he added.

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AP writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Raphael G. Satter and Jane Wardell in London, Scott McDonald in Beijing, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Daniel Woolls in Madrid contributed to this report.

Polanski, director of such classic films as “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” was arrested Saturday as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival.

Authorities in Los Angeles consider Polanski a convicted felon and fugitive. The director had pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse in 1977 with the underage girl. He was sent to prison for 42 days, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain.

On the day of his sentencing in 1978, aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time, Polanski fled to France.

The 76-year-old filmmaker has been the focus of an international tug-of-war, as France and Poland both want him released from prison. Their foreign ministers have pressed U.S. officials all the way up to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the case.

In the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona, the Federal Criminal Court said it had yet to receive an appeal asking for his release. Mascia Gregori Al-Barafi, the court’s general-secretary, said she didn’t know when the motion might be filed.

Swiss officials, however, have said there will be no rash decisions on the matter. Any verdict on Polanski’s release would likely take a few days, and would be subject to immediate appeals from both sides.

In a similar case four years ago involving Russia’s former atomic energy minister, an initial order of release was overturned by the Swiss high court and the accused Yevgeny Adamov ended up sitting in prison seven months before his eventual extradition to Russia.

“In most cases the imprisoned person has to remain in detention for the whole process,” said Peter Cosandey, a former Zurich prosecutor specializing in questions of international criminal cooperation.

“The chances that he will be exempted from prison are rather small,” because Polanski isn’t a Swiss citizen or permanent resident and is considered at high risk of fleeing justice.

The Swiss Justice Ministry on Monday did not rule out the possibility that Polanski could be released on bail under very strict conditions that he doesn’t flee Switzerland.

Justice spokesman Guido Balmer said such an arrangement is “not entirely excluded” under Swiss law and that Polanski could file a motion on bail. But he said Switzerland’s top criminal court would undertake a thorough examination of evidence before deciding on any request, and that would take time.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he hoped Polanski could be quickly freed by the Swiss, calling the apprehension a “bit sinister.” He and his Polish counterpart Radek Sikorski wrote to Clinton and called Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey about the case.

“(Polanski was) thrown to the lions,” said French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand. “In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face.”

Polanski, who has dual French-Polish citizenship, has hired Swiss attorney Lorenz Erni to represent him in Switzerland. Temime, Polanski’s French lawyer, said Erni was responsible for filing all motions on behalf of the filmmaker.

Under a 1990 accord between Switzerland and the U.S., Washington has 60 days to submit a formal request for his transfer. The U.S. request for Polanski’s transfer must first be examined by the Swiss Justice Ministry, and once approved it can be appealed at a number of courts.

For now, Polanski is living in a Zurich cell where he receives three meals a day and is allowed outside for one hour of daily exercise.

Rebecca de Silva, spokeswoman for the Zurich prison authorities, refused to say exactly where Polanski was being held for security reasons, but said cells are usually single or double occupancy and that each room contains a table, storage compartment, sink, toilet and television.

Family and friends can only see Polanski for an hour each week, but that does not include official visits from lawyers and consular diplomats, de Silva said.

Temime said Monday that Polanski had met with his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.

The Justice Ministry has insisted that politics played no role in its arrest order for Polanski, who lives in France but has spent much time at a chalet in the luxury Swiss resort of Gstaad.

Balmer, of the Justice Ministry, said the court theoretically could confine Polanski to his Gstaad chalet, but noted that “up to now there has never been a case of house arrest in such a situation.”

The U.S. has had an outstanding warrant on Polanski since 1978, but the Swiss said American authorities have sought the arrest of the director around the world only since 2005.

The arrest was prompted by a request from the U.S. Marshals Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, which includes the Los Angeles Police Department. Investigators with the service learned midweek that Polanski would be traveling to Switzerland and sought a provisional arrest warrant. The departments of State and Justice must sign off on those requests and forward them to the proper foreign entity, in this case Swiss justice officials.

Polanski has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges’ refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself, has joined in Polanski’s bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

Earlier this year, Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza in Los Angeles dismissed Polanski’s bid to throw out the case because the director failed to appear in court, but said there was “substantial misconduct” in the handling of the original case.

Espinoza said he reviewed not only legal documents, but also watched the HBO documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” which suggests there was behind-the-scenes manipulations by a now-retired prosecutor not assigned to the case.

A native of France who was taken to Poland by his parents, Polanski escaped Krakow’s Jewish ghetto as a child during World War II and lived off the charity of strangers. His mother died at the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish; he received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie “The Pianist.” He and Seigner have two children.

——

Klapper reported from Geneva.

“The commission’s ability to perform its tasks has been overtaken by new needs and undermined by the politicization of its sessions and the selectivity of its work,” Annan said.

As part of a package of reforms unveiled last month, the secretary-general proposed a human rights council to replace the present commission. The new council would be a permanent body, possibly on a par with the Security Council.

As a standing organ of the United Nations, the body would meet when necessary, addressing human rights violations as they arise. At present, the commission can only address issues during its annual six-week session.

Council members would be elected directly by the General Assembly by a two-thirds majority and fulfill specific human rights criteria, according to the proposed reforms.

Under U.N. rules, members of the commission have been picked by regional groups. Current member states that have been criticized themselves for abuses include China, Cuba, Nepal, Russia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Several other countries with poor human rights records have been on the commission over the years, and Libya has even held the chair.

A number of countries have pushed for more stringent eligibility criteria for the panel. Two years ago, the United States walked out of the commission’s meeting to protest Cuba’s re-election, which it called “an outrage.”

“The new human rights council must be a society of the committed. It must be more accountable and more representative,” Annan said. “Ultimately it would produce more effective assistance and protections, and that is the yardstick by which we should be measured.”

Annan singled out human rights abuses in Darfur, saying that the situation there is a test for the United Nations, “as individuals and as an institution.”

Last year, the commission voted 50-1, with 2 abstentions, to express concern about the situation in Darfur, but stopped short of formal condemnation of Sudan. Even formal censure by the commission involves no penalties but draws attention to a country’s record.

The United Nations has called the situation in Darfur — where two rebel groups made up of black tribesmen have been fighting against the government for two years, prompting a rampage by pro-government Arab militiamen accused of atrocities against civilians — as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

An estimated 180,000 people have died in the upheaval and about 2 million others have been displaced since the conflict began in February 2003.