PORT-AU-PRINCE,  (Reuters) – Haiti’s president yesterday condemned “arrogant” U.S. criticism of corruption in  his government, and said the Haitian presidency should have  final veto power over donor-funded reconstruction projects  following January’s catastrophic earthquake.

President Rene Preval’s anger was directed at a U.S. State  Department Human Rights report on Haiti for 2009, released last  week, which said “corruption remained widespread in all  branches and at all levels of government”.

His reaction threatened to sour Haiti’s ties with its main  relief partner as the Caribbean state’s government and foreign  donors drafted a plan for the country’s recovery and long-term  reconstruction following the devastating Jan. 12 quake.

Preval told Reuters in an interview the U.S. government  report alleging serious corruption was “arrogant”. “There is  nothing to reject or accept. It is an arbitrary judgment to  which we won’t respond,” he said in an interview in a temporary  office behind the quake-damaged presidential palace.

The report, part of a batch issued annually by the State  Department for countries around the world, was prepared before  the Jan. 12 quake that shattered many parts of the Haitian  capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns, wiping out at  least half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Preval said government employees had counted 217,000 dead  but the final death toll was probably more than 300,000.

The Haitian president, a 67-year-old agronomist who took  office in 2006, said the U.S. State Department practice of  judging human rights in other states “hurt” the United States’  partners, and he hoped President Barack Obama would end it.

Last week, in a visit to Washington, Preval personally  thanked Obama for U.S. assistance to Haiti following the  earthquake, described by some experts as the deadliest natural  disaster in modern times.

“Is there corruption in the United States? Yes. Is there  corruption in Haiti? Yes. Is the U.S. government fighting  corruption? Yes. Is the Haitian government fighting corruption?  Yes,” said Preval, who has been praised by the international  community for seeking economic reform and cleaner government.

On Obama’s instructions, the U.S. government and military  became Haiti’s leading emergency relief provider in the weeks  after the quake, playing a major role in bringing in aid  supplies, maintaining security and dispensing medical help.

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However, most analysts and development experts agree that  corruption has been deeply entrenched in Haiti for decades,  part of a stubborn cycle of economic underdevelopment and  political instability that has kept the small Caribbean state  the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The corruption issue has become acutely sensitive as  foreign donors prepare to commit to a planned Haiti  Reconstruction Fund that will help to repair quake damage  estimated at up to $14 billion by some economists, and also to  finance the country’s medium- and long-term development.

Preval said Haiti was proposing that the fund, to be  finally agreed at a high-level meeting of donors in New York on  March 31, would initially be jointly administered for 18 months  by representatives of the donors and of the Haitian state,  sitting in a governing board.

“This governing board will analyze the projects proposed by  the Haitian government and there will be an executive council  for the execution of the projects once they have been approved  by the governing board, and finally by the president, who has  right of veto,” he said.

After 18 months, the administration of the reconstruction  fund would revert to the Haitian state alone, he said.

Besides the rebuilding fund, which Dominican Republic  President Leonel Fernandez has said could consist of at least  $10 billion, Preval said Haiti urgently needed donors to  quickly deliver $350 million in direct budgetary support to  help his government provide key services and pay salaries.