Wellington, Jan 14 NZPA - United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has postponed her visit to New Zealand, which was due to start tomorrow, because of the earthquake in Haiti.

Mrs Clinton is coordinating US relief efforts in Haiti, where it is being reported the death toll could be as high as 100,000.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully said today Mrs Clinton called him this morning to tell him she was postponing the planned three-day visit.

"She promised the reschedule the visit as soon as possible," he said in a statement.

"Mrs Clinton told me that given the unimaginable scale of tragedy, and the fact that there are no operating institutions left in Haiti, the importance of US leadership in the relief efforts required her to return home immediately."

Mr McCully said her decision to postpone the visit was entirely understandable "given the massive damage and loss of life in Haiti, and the fact that there are a very large number of Americans based there".

He said he told Mrs Clinton New Zealand had specialist skills in a number of emergency relief and recovery areas, and he would be happy to help US efforts in any way required.

Mrs Clinton had been scheduled to arrive in Auckland early tomorrow and hold formal talks with Prime Minister John Key and Mr McCully later that day.

She had planned to stay until Sunday, meeting a wide range of New Zealanders at several functions.

NZPA