The stunning scale of the January 12 catastrophe in what was already the poorest country in the Americas has been made worse by the Haitian government's halting response -- due in part to its tremendous losses in the quake.

At the same time, international aid delivery took some three weeks to move into high gear and even now continues to stumble, including this week when fake food aid coupons in circulation halted a distribution.

Desperate Haitians have begun to take to the streets to protest the lack of food and housing, with many concerned about the start of the rainy season, typically around May.

President Rene Preval has remained largely out of sight, and his government is operating in makeshift offices after the collapse of the picturesque National Palace and ministry buildings surrounding it.

The Champ de Mars square across from the palace has been turned into a giant camp with tents made of whatever material homeless Haitians can get their hands on.

Nearby is the statue of the unknown slave -- a reminder of Haiti's past as the world's first black republic after a successful slave revolt.

As has been the case so often in this Caribbean nation, the hope spawned by that history has again been tarnished by despair.

"I used to earn 10,000 gourdes per month (250 dollars)," said Mackerson Lorcy, a 31-year-old who worked as a computer specialist but whose office was damaged in the quake.

"I have a child and my sister has three. With my mother, eight of us live in the courtyard of a church ... We don't have a tent and I wait in line like everybody else to get something to eat."

The Champ de Mars camp is one of many like it that are fast becoming health concerns because of the thousands of people crammed in and poor sanitation.

The UN estimated this week that there are now some 1.2 million people living in makeshift camps, with 272,000 surviving in some sort of emergency shelter.

Aid efforts have managed to speed up food delivery recently -- 1.1 million people in the capital have received two weeks worth of rice rations over eight days, the UN said on Monday.

But it took some three weeks to open all of the planned food distribution points, and only a small percentage of the huge numbers of promised tents have been given out.

Former US president Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, visited for the second time since the quake last week and said he was sorry the aid had taken so long.

He noted that the quake was the United Nations' deadliest disaster in its history -- its own building in Haiti collapsed, killing several staffers -- and said that the poor condition of roads and the government's losses have also complicated relief efforts.

The US response has also been faulted, with some calling it heavy-handed and others too slow.

Washington has had sometimes difficult relations with Haiti, and US officials say they are doing everything possible to help in difficult conditions.

The United States, which occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, has deployed some 17,000 troops to the country and off its coast.

The Haitian government clearly needs all the help it can get.

One expert has said the disaster exposed the "fiction" of the government, which even beforehand was unable to provide basic services such as reliable tap water, energy or security.

For Haitians, the shock of the disaster has begun to give way to anger -- though they have largely remained calm.

Long lines have formed at the central immigration office, with Haitians who lost their passports in the quake or who never had reason to get one before seeking them so they can try to leave.

One man said he could not afford the 500 gourds (13 dollars) needed to get a new one.

"Maybe after 15, 20 years the country will come back," said Joel Jean Louis, 37, who explained how he pulled his wife and three children out of the rubble of their house without serious injuries the day of the quake.

"But until then, I have a wife and children."

The government authorized schools in areas that were not hit to begin reopening at the start of February. UN officials say that some schools have opened, but few children are attending.

Electricity remains out in much of the quake-affected area.

But despite the destruction, Haitians have sought to return to some version of normalcy, with open air markets lining the streets in certain areas, hawking everything from mangos to metal crutches.

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