Haiti PM: rebuilding could take 10 years

Bellerive said it could take his impoverished Caribbean nation three or four years to return to its pre-quake state and up to 10 years to rebuild 250,000 houses destroyed by the magnitude 7 earthquake on January 12.

Planning for shelters and new homes is not far along and the number of spontaneous tent encampments around the city -- where most Haitians are living under plastic tarps or cloth bedsheets -- has grown to nearly 500, Bellerive said.

"We are still in a very difficult situation," Bellerive told Reuters. "We still don't have a clear vision of certain problems -- how we are going to relocate all those people."

Bellerive, an economist who became prime minister only two months before the quake, said conditions are improving in some areas, with better food distribution and better health services.

Foreign donors have poured millions of dollars worth of food, shelter and other aid into Haiti, where before the quake most people lived on less than $2 a day.

Bellerive said shelter remained the biggest problem for the government to address. Residents whose homes were damaged, or who are afraid to sleep indoors, have set up camp on the edges of the capital's airport, the main city square downtown, a golf course, open fields, courtyards of businesses and sidewalks.