At least 136 people have been killed by Tropical Storm Hanna, which hit early this week just eight days after Gustav caused some 77 deaths. Tropical storm Fay two weeks ago killed another 40 people.

"Haiti has officially requested urgent international assistance," Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told a press conference in Geneva. "The United Nations is in the process of launching an emergency international appeal."

Switzerland has already promised aid worth one million Swiss francs (901,000 dollars, 630,000 euros) and USAID has allocated 100,000 dollars (69,800 euros) to help the impoverished Caribbean republic, OCHA said.

And in Brussels, the European Commission launched "fast-track" aid action for Haiti. "The European Commission has today launched a fast-track funding decision for two million euros to provide relief for victims of Tropical Storm Hanna in Haiti," the EU's executive arm said in a statement.

Mountainous Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas with more than 70 percent of the population in poverty, is especially prone to flash-flooding and mudslides. Haitians have cut down most trees and bushes to make cooking fires, which causes erosion and worsens flooding.

The airport in the capital Port-au-Prince reopened September 3, allowing a group of UN experts to evaluate the extent of the damage.

"Nine out of 10 regions in Haiti were seriously affected as a result of the double impact of the tropical storms Gustav and Hanna," OCHA said.

The worst-hit city is Gonaives, flooded after being hit by Hanna on Monday and Tuesday, leaving some 200,000 people without food or water.

Haiti's Senate voted late Thursday to declare a state of emergency in the city, 152 kilometers (94 miles) north of Port-au-Prince.

Senator Yuri Latortue, who represents the city, calling the situation "catastrophic."

"I know perfectly well that the hurricane season has hit our entire country, but the situation in Gonaives is truly special, because now some 200,000 people there haven't eaten in three days," he said.

Michele Pierre-Louis, Haiti's new prime minister approved Friday to take office after four months of political standstill, now will have to manage a grim emergency humanitarian crisis.

Tuesday President Rene Preval said he was distressed by events and urged the international community to rally to Haiti's aid.

The Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has sent the International Organization for Migration (OIM) five tonnes of aid, including emergency kits and tarpaulins.

France was sending a ship to Haiti with a helicopter aboard to help with search and rescue operations and channelling aid to the hardest hit areas. Spain also was sending four jetloads of humanitarian aid to Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica.

Meanwhile Hurricane Ike was forecast to spare Haiti as it plowed across the Atlantic on a forecast path that bypassed northern Haiti and heads into the Bahamas, US National Hurricane Center forecaster Karina Castillo said in Miami.

"At least for now" Haiti looks likely to be spared yet another hit, she said. "Currently Hispaniola (the island shared by Haiti on the west and the Dominican Republic on the east) is out of the three-day forecast cone, but Cuba is not," she added noting that soaked northeastern Cuba could feel Ike's wrath.

"After Cuba, Ike is forecast to move into the central Bahamas and to make landfall in South Florida" on Wednesday as a major (Category 3-to-5) hurricane Castillo warned.

Densely populated south Florida, including the cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has not been hit by a major hurricane since devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew was the costliest natural disaster in US history until it was topped by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.