Appeal: Host Larry King speaks to Mick Jagger during a two-hour telethon on CNN last night which raised more than $5million
Support: Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr left a message, while Sarah Ferguson was in the studio taking pledges from viewers
Taking calls: Ben Stiller and Benicio Del Toro last night
Pleas: Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez asks for donations
Relief effort: Wyclef Jean arriving at the airport in Port-au-Prince last week for a three-day trip to see how he could best help his fellow Haitians
Fundraiser: George Clooney, at the Golden Globes, where he announced a charity concert - and was among celebs who signed a car to be auctioned off
Tears streamed down Wyclef Jean's face as the singer promised his fellow Haitians that he would not desert them in their hour of need.
Clutching a handkerchief, he pleaded for continued international help for the quake-hit island at a press conference broadcast live on his Yéle Haiti foundation website.
The 37-year-old former Fugees star said the devastated capital Port-au-Prince urgently needed to be evacuated so that relief agencies could go in.
However, his impassioned speech was tinged with anger as he was forced to deny that money raised by his charity - up to $2m - had been diverted for his personal gain.
'If you don't mind I would want to speak to my people in Haiti,' he said, taking the platform in New York. 'So I will speak to them in their own language.'
He later translated, saying: 'I told them that I don't cry for myself, that I cry for them. 'I tell them just...give us...a little more time. We're going to be back on the ground on Saturday and we are going to be back on the ground every week to help the situation.'
Jean, who has just returned from a three-day fact-finding mission to Haiti, said the most important job was to organise a mass exodus of the Port-au-Prince so that emergency workers could go in and clear the rubble.
He insisted that residents should be evacuated to tent cities outside the capital so that aid could reach them and the clean-up could begin in earnest.
Jean asked for help from around the world in building encampments and urged people to help fund the distribution of tents to house the refugees in the interim.
We need to migrate at least two million people,' he said, promising to draw on his status as one of Haiti's favourite sons to aid in such an effort.
'I give you my word, if I tell them to go, they will go. But they need somewhere to go to'
His organisation has drawn fire in recent days as some groups which vet charities raised doubts about its accounting practices and ability to function in a nation devastated by last week's earthquake.
Jean, who is organising a fundraising concert with actor George Clooney, did however have to defend his charity from suggestions that $2m received by Yéle Haiti had gone to his own businesses.
An Associated Press review of tax returns and independent audits provided by Jean's foundation showed that it was closely intertwined with Jean's businesses.
'I started the charity with my own funds,' he said. 'I wanted to make sure the Yéle wouldn't just be a foundation,' he said.
'[I wanted Yéle] to be on the ground in Haiti because that is the only way that I could be effective to the Haitian people.
'Have we made mistakes before? Yes. Did I ever use Yéle money for personal benefit? Absolutely not.'
Hugh Locke, president of Yéle, said that among their past mistakes was the decision to buy $250,000 of airtime from Telemax S.A., a for-profit TV station in Haiti that is majority-owned by Jean and another foundation board member.
Locke said that Yéle believed it was getting a good price for airtime in a nation where many are illiterate and rely on the TV for information. The decision would be handled differently now, he said.
Jean, who helped start Yéle in January 2005 - told reporters that he had just returned from a trip to the earthquake-ravaged island.
Port-au-Prince is a morgue,' he said, recounting how he collected the corpses of small children and adults from the festering streets on his recent trip.
He said the morgues were full or destroyed and he helped take bodies to a cemetery where people were 'fighting over the holes'.
The foundation plans to send donated supplies to Haiti on a plane provided by FedEx on Saturday. It is still deciding how donated funds will be spent, considering such options as mobile schools for refugee camps and security forces to escort supplies.
Meanwhile dozens of celebrities appeared on a special two-hour show hosted by Larry King on CNN last night to show their support for the Haiti appeal and to urge viewers to call in with a donation.
Jennifer Lopez, Ben Stiller, Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Scarlett Johansson, Will.I.Am, Snoop Dogg, P Diddy, Benicio Del Toro and Ashley Judd were among those appearing and taking calls from viewers.
King announced almost $5 million had been raised for UNICEF and the Red Cross while the show was on air.
Wyclef Jean and Clooney will host a 'Hope for Haiti' benefit concert on Friday which will include performances from Bono, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys.
Clooney said that more than 40 celebrities are expected to attend the New York event, which he said would 'show the people of Haiti that the whole world is paying attention'.
The benefit will be broadcast on more than a dozen broadcast and cable networks and will benefit the Red Cross, UNICEF, Oxfam America, Partners in Health and Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation.
Clooney said that songs from participating artists will also be available on iTunes, with proceeds going to the relief effort.
Get Earthquake Kit
