The estimated death toll from the earthquake in Haiti has risen to 230,000 - on a par with the 2004 Asian tsunami

The death toll from the January 12 quake rose to 230,000 from 212,000, Haiti's government said, adding that more bodies remain uncounted.

The government initially estimated on January 24 that 150,000 died in the tragedy, apparently from bodies being recovered in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince, the capital that was near the epicentre.

Communications minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the government now estimates the death toll to be 230,000.

But she said the new figure is not definitive. She said it does not include bodies buried by private funeral homes in private cemeteries or the dead buried by their own families.