REUTERS: U.N. death toll from Haiti quake reaches 61

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The death toll for the United Nations in Haiti has reached 61, the greatest loss of life the world body has suffered from a single incident in its 65-year history, U.N. officials said on Thursday.

The number of U.N. workers killed by the Jan. 12 earthquake, which caused the organization's Haiti peacekeeping mission's headquarters and other buildings to collapse, involved 25 civilian U.N. workers, 24 military personnel and 12 police, spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Chief U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said that $207 million had been received toward an emergency U.N. appeal for aid funds, and $106 million pledged. He said the amount received so far was 36 percent of the requested sum of $575 million.

Separately, Nesirky was asked about media reports the Haitian government had rejected an offer from the Dominican Republic to send troops to Haiti. The two countries, which share the island of Hispaniola, have a long history of tense relations.

He said that, on the contrary, the Dominican Republic would be contributing to an enlarged Haiti peacekeeping force totaling 12,651 troops and police.

Earlier this week, U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the Dominican Republic had offered a full battalion of some 800 soldiers. Several senior Western diplomats and a U.N. official told Reuters on Wednesday that Haitian President Rene Preval had rejected that offer.

But the U.N. official said the rejection was not definitive and negotiations on a smaller contribution from Haiti's neighbor continued.

Le Roy's deputy and acting head of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Haiti, Edmond Mulet, said by telephone from Port-au-Prince on Thursday that 130 Dominican Republic soldiers would be joining the peacekeeping operation.

Nesirky said the Dominican Republic's "military personnel" would accompany a Peruvian contingent of blue helmets and help secure a humanitarian corridor stretching from the Dominican-Haitian border to Port-au-Prince.

He added those troops would be deployed soon.

Asked about the deployment of troops from the Dominican Republic, Haitian U.N. Ambassador Leo Merores said his government would issue a statement on the issue and that the two countries' relations were a "sensitive" issue. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Peter Cooney)