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NEWARK, New Jersey, United States - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon headed to Haiti on Sunday to experience first-hand what he described as the "most serious humanitarian crisis" to face the world body in decades.

"I am going to Haiti with a very heavy heart to express solidarity and full support of the UN to the people of Haiti," Ban told journalists accompanying him on a day-long trip to the disaster zone.

Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake in Haiti has killed as many as 100,000 people and was also the worst ever disaster for the UN with 40 staffers confirmed dead and nearly 330 others still unaccounted for.

"We have to prepare for the worst," Ban said as he flew out of Newark, referring to UN employees still missing after the disaster that flattened much of the capital Port-au-Prince and nearby towns in western Haiti.

Ban said the three top priorities were: to save as many people as possible, to bring emergency humanitarian aid in the form of water, food and medication, and to coordinate the massive aid effort, he said.

The UN has noted that at least local government structures remained after the 2004 tsunami hit Indonesia's Aceh province, but in the Haiti town of Leogane, for example, all public services were lost in the earthquake.

Between 20,000 and 30,000 people are thought to have died in that town alone, an indication of the horrific scale of the catastrophe beyond Port-au-Prince.

Ban will assess the Caribbean nation's needs and attempt to boost the shattered morale of the Brazilian-led United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH.

The UN secretary general is expected to meet Haitian President Rene Preval and pledge the world body's full support in the wake of the disaster, which could have claimed up to 100,000 lives.

On the eve of his departure, Ban grimly confirmed that MINUSTAH civilian chief Hedi Hannabi, his Brazilian deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa and acting police commissioner, Doug Coates of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, were confirmed to have died.

"The United Nations was his life and he ranked amongst its most dedicated and committed sons," the UN boss said of Annabi, a veteran Tunisian UN troubleshooter.

Annabi was meeting with a visiting Chinese police delegation when the quake flattened MINUSTAH's main headquarters building in Port-au-Prince's Christopher Hotel building.

Ban has sent Edmond Mulet, a top UN peacekeeping official and Annabi's predecessor, to Port-au-Prince to take charge of the decapitated MINUSTAH in an interim capacity.

Accompanying Ban in Haiti will be UN Development Program head Helen Clark, top UN peacekeeper Alain Leroy, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes and Susana Malcorra, who is in charge of the world body's field support operations.

Holmes on Friday appealed for 562 million dollars from the world community to help three million quake victims in the western hemisphere's poorest country for a period of six months.

The money is to be used for urgently needed food, water and sanitation, medical supplies, tents and blankets, logistics and education.

Ban last toured Haiti with former US president Bill Clinton in March 2009 to urge the international community to aid the island nation after it was battered by hurricanes the previous year.

Clinton and fellow former president George W. Bush, named by the White House as special coordinators of aid to Haiti, launched an appeal Saturday to raise tens of millions of dollars for the stricken country.