"She just said 'thank you". She's very weak, which suggests that she's been there for 15 days," rescue team spokesman Commander Samuel Bernes said on Wednesday. "She was in a pocket surrounded by concrete, completely dehydrated," he added. "She was treated on the spot, she wasn't able to get out alone," said Commander Bernes, explaining that neighbours had been searching in the rubble of their home in the central Carrefour-Feuilles district when they heard a voice. They had to do relatively little digging to free her, he said. The girl was treated at the scene for dehydration and a weak pulse, transferred to a French field hospital in Port-au-Prince and then taken to a French navy ship anchored off the coast, he added.

Michel Orcel, a doctor at the field hospital, said the girl was "happy" after her rescue. "She is 16 years old. She is alive and she has her whole life ahead of her. She was speaking; she said that she was happy," Colonel Orcel said. "She is in a very advanced state of dehydration. For the moment we have to calm her, tranquilise her, stabilise her." About 135 people have been pulled alive from the ruins in Port-au-Prince since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which devastated much of the capital in the worst recorded disaster to hit the Americas. US troops on Wednesday pulled a 31-year-old man from the rubble, although he may have been buried by a building that collapsed after the earthquake.

On Tuesday, Haitians pulled a man from the rubble of a downtown store. He later said he had been trapped since one of the quake's early aftershocks. Haiti has been rattled by dozens of aftershocks following the initial quake. Experts say each powerful new tremor diminishes remaining hopes for people buried in rubble, who risk being crushed by masonry dislodged by the new tremors. Cases of trapped survivors holding out for a week after an earthquake are considered extraordinary, while surviving beyond 10 days is extremely rare.

Haiti's President Rene Preval said "nearly 170,000" bodies have already been counted, substantially higher than previous toll estimates of 150,000.

"In 15 days many efforts have been made. The National Equipment Company has made great efforts in removing nearly 170,000 dead from the streets and clearing the roadways to facilitate traffic," Mr Preval told a press conference on Wednesday. On Monday, Health Minister Alex Larsen said he expected a final death toll of about 150,000 from the earthquake. At least 83 UN staff members died in the earthquake and 32 remain unaccounted for, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. Pillagers have run rife in the ruins of the capital, while there is no sign of the tent camps promised by the Government for the hundreds of thousands of homeless people fleeing grim conditions in Port-au-Prince. Just four blocks from the destroyed presidential palace as crowds queued under a blazing sun, Immacula Cadet said she was hungry, but was afraid of being hurt in the long lines if fighting erupts over the handouts.

"I don't want to battle in the road to have a little bread," she told AFP. "We really have problems. We need all that [aid]. We need food, we have no water." A massive aid effort has swung into place, but many Haitians, left living in makeshift camps dotted around Port-au-Prince, say they have yet to receive vital supplies of food or water. A massive aid effort has swung into place, but many Haitians, left living in makeshift camps dotted around Port-au-Prince, say they have yet to receive vital supplies of food or water. Haitians are "desperately in need of meals ready to eat" and tents ahead of the rainy season, senior UN humanitarian official Catherine Bragg said at the World Economic Forum at the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. In the Cite Soleil slum on Tuesday, several thousand desperate people converged on a walled police compound for sacks of relief supplies, surging against the steel gates. Across the city, walls have been scrawled with messages. "We need help. Food, water, medicine," said one in Spanish and English.

About 20,000 US troops have been sent in to help distribute food and water. The US said it had begun to hand out 14 million meals and was aiming to supply half a million people with fresh water within a few days. Agencies

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