ROME, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chief of the United Nation's food agency said on Friday he was shocked and saddened by the destruction in Haiti and its people's sufferings after an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

    Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), expressed in a statement sympathy for victims of the earthquake, including some U.N. staff who lost their lives in the disaster.

    "We are still trying to locate the personnel of FAO in Port-au-Prince that are still missing. Every effort is being made to trace them under extremely difficult circumstances, with very weak communications," Diouf said.

    The FAO chief pledged to send its personnel to join international efforts in the rescue and relief work in Haiti.

    The FAO is to assess the damage to the agricultural sector and the impact of the quake on food security in the poverty stricken nation, which has the highest level of malnutrition among countries in the western hemisphere, he said.

    The Rome-based agency will also play its role in the rehabilitation and reconstruction work over the next weeks and months.

    "We will continue assisting with food production in Haiti so that the devastating effects of the earthquake do not increase hunger in the capital and elsewhere," Diouf said.

    "There is also an urgent need to restore small-scale agricultural infrastructure and create urban agricultural projects to provide nourishment, hope and therapy for the victims," Diouf said, adding the FAO would help Haiti prepare for the next agriculture season starting in March 2010.