France fears everyone inside U.N. HQ in Haiti dead

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday he feared everyone inside the United Nations headquarters in Haiti were killed when the building was destroyed by a powerful earthquake.

"The U.N. building has collapsed and it seems that all those who were in the building, including my friend Heni Annabi who was the special envoy at the United Nations ... are dead," Kouchner told France's RTL radio.

However, he said Haiti's President Rene Preval had managed to escape his collapsing palace during the earthquake that rocked Porte-au-Prince on Tuesday.

The U.N. itself has said the people in its building were unaccounted for.

Kouchner did not specify how he had obtained the information, although he said he had spoken to France's ambassador to Haiti who reported chaos and destruction in the capital.

"Certainly I'm going to talk to President Preval, whose presidential palace also collapsed but he got out. I'm going to speak to him soon," Kouchner told RTL, according to a transcript of the interview.

The earthquake killed possibly thousands of people, as aftershocks rattled through the night and into Wednesday. (Reporting by Sophie Hardach; Editing by Louise Ireland)