UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- At least five were confirmed dead after the collapse of the U.N. headquarter building in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, devastated by a strong earthquake, a senior U.N. official said here Wednesday.

    Alain Le Roy, the U.N. under-secretary-general for the peacekeeping operations, told reporters that fewer than 10 people, "some dead, some alive," have been recovered from the rubble but many remained unaccounted for.

    Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that the head of the U.N. mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was among the missing people, but Ban could not confirm the reports that Annabi had died.

    Ban said that he plans to visit the quake-hit Haiti as soon as possible. At the moment, he is at the U.N. Headquarters in New York "to save lives" by coordinating and commanding relief operations with major countries and the international community.

    Ban said that he is scheduled to discuss what to do for Haiti with his Special Evnoy, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, on Wednesday morning.

    Ban said that he contacted major countries, including the United States, and the international community to engage relief operations in the country, where the communication system broke down and only "limited channels" were available to connect the island country with the outside world.