UN assessor: Haiti needs $11.5 billion to rebuild

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - March 16, 2010 Alejandro Zapata says the figure is an estimate from the Haitian government and international agencies including the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

He says two-thirds of the $11.5 billion should go to re-fashioning the Caribbean nation by attacking deep social inequities.

Zapata was speaking Tuesday at a meeting of 24 countries and multilateral organizations that is a precursor to the major U.N. donors' conference in New York on March 31.