The Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, has said that the city's central business district and its historic French Quarter will reopen over the weekend.
Mayor Nagin said that business operators in both areas and in the uptown and Algiers neighbourhoods would be allowed to return on Saturday and Sunday.
Mayor Nagin said several localities are being cleared of debris and that water, electricity and sewers are being restored, and that residents of those areas would also be allowed to return in a phased process.
However, many other areas of New Orleans remain flooded. Experts have warned that up to 160,000 homes may have to be razed to the ground.
Nearly half a million people fled before or in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Meanwhile, the US President, George W Bush, returns to the US Gulf Coast region today for his fourth visit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The White House has scheduled a nationwide prime time television address from New Orleans (2am Irish time).
The number of people who are confirmed to have died in the disaster has risen to more than 700, the majority of them in Louisiana and Mississippi.
