EU foreign affairs chief under fire for not visiting Haiti

(STRASBOURG) - EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton came under fire from centre-right European lawmakers Tuesday for failing to rush to earthquake-ravaged Haiti shortly after the disaster.

The newly installed Ashton, who has already faced criticism for what critics call her lack of experience, said she was "not a doctor, not a firefighter."

"Do you think it was good that (US Secretary of State Hillary) Clinton was there, and the world body, but Europe was not present" in Haiti, asked centre-right MEP Joseph Daul during a press conference in Strasbourg.

If the EU foreign affairs chief had been a member of his European People's Party (EPP) and not Ashton's British Labour Party, "we would have sent them" to Haiti, the French leader of the centre-right party said.

Ashton defended her approach, arguing that if she did go to Haiti she would just be taking up "valuable" space which should go to the rescue and aid efforts.

"I'm not a doctor, not a firefighter," she told the assembly, adding that she was in close touch with Clinton and the United Nations to help coordinate efforts rather than grandstanding for the cameras.

Ashton added that she had resisted the urge to travel swiftly to Haiti on UN advice.

However she added that EU aid commissioner Karel De Gucht would travel there later in the week to see the aid efforts first hand and assess the most urgent needs of the Haitians affected.

Haitian officials have expressed fears the final quake toll may top 200,000 and according to a government minister, so far some 70,000 bodies have been buried.

Relief efforts are now focusing on the estimated quarter of a million injured and 1.5 million homeless, including many orphans who lost their parents in the disaster.

Jozsef Szajer, another deputy from the EPP, said he was "shocked" that the "high representative was on holiday rather than being at the scene".

However, Daul said he would not use the episode as a pretext for again calling into question Ashton's abilities for the role of EU foreign affairs supremo.

Those comments came as EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso attempts to get a new cabinet up and running for his second term in office.

Over the last week and a half the European parliament has grilled all 26 EU commissioners designate, including Ashton, on their aptitude for the job.

On Tuesday this process was disrupted when Bulgaria's EU commission nominee Rumiana Jeleva withdrew amid allegations of incompetence and financial irregularities.

The EPP are Jeleva's own political family in the parliament and were the only group to support her candidacy.

British peer Ashton failed to impress the MEPs at her hearing with her grasp of the broad external affairs portfolio.