U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is stressing the need to send additional troops to Haiti in order to assist in relief efforts and to maintain public order following last week’s massive earthquake.

Ban told reporters that during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday he recommended that the council raise the peacekeeping contingent in Haiti by 15-hundred police officers and two-thousand troops.

Ban, who visited the Caribbean country’s devastated capital of Port-au-Prince earlier in the week, said the contingent, if expanded, would remain in Haiti for six months.

Meanwhile, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky says the latest confirmed death toll among U.N. personnel stands at 46, adding that the whereabouts of some 500 staff members have yet to be confirmed.