European Union military mission to provide shelter in Haiti

The European Union (EU) plans to send a military mission to Haiti to help provide shelter for earthquake victims ahead of the rainy season in March, the bloc's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said on Thursday.

"Shelter is the most burning need," Ashton said in a statement at an EU summit in Brussels. Haiti's government and the United Nations had requested the military mission, she said.

EU officials gave no details of the size of the mission.

The 27-country European Union has been providing humanitarian assistance for victims of the January disaster and deployed paramilitary police to help protect the relief effort.

Some EU members had compared the European response unfavourably to that of the United States, which has deployed tens of thousands of troops and vast food and aid supplies.

Last month, EU institutions and member states offered more than 400 million euros ($552 million) in emergency and longer-term aid to Haiti.