GONAIVES, Haiti - Victims who lost relatives, homes and belongings in Tropical Storm Jeanne are now tormented by street gangs who attack food convoys, raid homes at night and shoot those who get in their way.

The failure of Haiti's U.S.-backed government to disarm the gangs that helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has created a climate of instability that further jeopardizes lives after the calamity Jeanne visited on Gonaives 10 days ago.

"There's a big problem with gangs," the security chief of the U.N. stabilization mission in Haiti, John Harrison, told The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, he was looking for safe places to distribute food and stopped at the port, where he found armed men.

"I think things could get worse," he said.

While planeloads of aid have arrived from around the world, getting it to the people who need it has become the hard part.

The entrance to the city has been a flashpoint for looters but was being secured Tuesday by Uruguayan troops in the U.N. peacekeeping force.

Interior Minister Herard Abraham, a retired Haitian army general, said the Uruguayans needed time to settle in and that security would improve soon.

The United Nations rushed 150 more soldiers to Gonaives at the weekend to reinforce some 600 peacekeepers already in the city. Brazilian Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, in charge of the U.N. force, said Monday he has only 3,000 of the 6,700 troops he needs and could use more help from Haiti's police force.

On Tuesday, police from Haiti's demoralized and ill-equipped force passed a water truck as looters chucked out bottles to a gleeful crowd that followed. They did nothing.

"We believe the lootings are planned by gangs," Agriculture Minister Phillipe Mathieu told a news conference in the capital, Port-au-Prince. "They organize people jumping on trucks."

Police Commissioner Abner Vilme confirmed street gangs were breaking into people's homes in the blacked-out city at night. He said his men - down to about 15 since the storm - had tried to negotiate with the gangs, but that they did not keep promises to behave.

Dr. Jean-Claude Kompas, a New York physician who rushed to volunteer his services last week, said he has treated 30 people for gunshot wounds received in fights over scarce food.

Officials say more than 1,500 people have died and 900 are missing since the storm passed 10 days ago. Many of the missing must be presumed dead - washed out to sea or buried in debris still not reached by rescue workers.

The toll will rise as rescuers reach areas that have been inaccessible so far, officials say.