The UN is to begin a major programme of food distribution in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, almost three weeks after the deadly earthquake. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it had established fixed sites for food distribution to begin from today. Accordingly, sixteen sites have been set up across the city with the aim of reaching two million people over two weeks. WFP said only women will be allowed to collect earthquake relief supplies, because that is the best way to get food to the people who need it. It said men will be encouraged to wait outside the distribution centres to accompany women after they have been given rations, because lone women would be more vulnerable to attack. The move came as doctors voiced concern that the US had halted the evacuation of the critically injured to the US. Meanwhile, at least nine Americans were held on suspicion of trying to take children out of the country unauthorised. A Haiti government spokesman, Yves Christallin, said the Americans were caught with more than 30 children on the border with the Dominican Republic, where they said they had an orphanage.