The U.N. regional assessor for natural disasters says Haiti needs $11.5 billion over three years to rebuild and transform the hemisphere's poorest nation after its catastrophic earthquake.

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.