Victims of a Haiti cholera epidemic have filed a lawsuit demanding compensation from the UN over an outbreak that killed more than 8300 people.
The petition filed at the New York district court said at least 679,000 other people had fallen ill with cholera since the outbreak began in October 2010.
There had been no cholera in Haiti for at least 150 years until it was brought by UN peacekeeping troops from Nepal, lawyer Ira Kurzban told a news conference.
The United Nations, which refused to reach an out-of-court compensation settlement, said in February it was legally immune from action over the epidemic.
On Wednesday, a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said of the lawsuit the UN remains committed to do all it can to help the people of Haiti overcome the cholera epidemic, but it would not discuss the matter.
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"Our comments from previous months stand," Haq said.
The source of the cholera epidemic was traced to a river that runs next to a UN camp in the central town of Mirebalais, where Nepalese troops had been based.
The strain of cholera in the deeply impoverished Caribbean nation is the same as one endemic in Nepal.
"The outbreak resulted from the negligent, reckless, and tortious conduct of the defendants," a copy of the petition seen by AFP said.
It lists the defendants as the United Nations, the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti and at least two of their officers.
The US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), which is representing 8000 victims and families of those who died, says cholera continues to kill about 1000 Haitians a year.
In May, the victims gave the United Nations a 60-day deadline to reach a compensation deal or face a lawsuit.
Lawyers at the time sought $US100,000 ($A106,000) for the family of each victim who died and $US50,000 ($A53,000) for each survivor, which could take the claim into several billion dollars.
On Wednesday, IJDH spokeswoman Beatrice Lindstrom told reporters it would be up to the jury to set the limits of the compensation figure in court.
The lawsuit has been filed in New York as the city where the United Nations is headquartered..
