AFP - Haitian President Rene Preval on Saturday pleaded for the world to urgently help provide shelter for some 1.2 million people left homeless by last month's devastating earthquake.

In comments after meeting visiting Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on the grounds of the destroyed National Palace, Preval warned that the heavy rain season, which begins around May, posed a major risk to those without shelter.

"It is urgent today that those who are in the streets, exposed to the storms ... find shelter right away," said Preval, who added that his country did not have the resources to do it alone.

He urged Bachelet to pass along the message at a summit of Latin American and Caribbean countries in Mexico next week.

"We are putting the highest priority on finding the means and the methods to allow families to be sheltered in decent conditions as rapidly as possible," said Preval.

Bachelet offered Chile's expertise in dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes, including in reconstruction.

"This tragedy must be turned into an opportunity for Haiti's development with the support of the international community, but under the leadership of President Preval and the Haitian government," she said, speaking in French.

Aid officials are rushing out tarpaulins in a bid to provide some kind of shelter to all those made homeless, but only about 30 percent have received materials so far, according to the United Nations.

Preval said Saturday only 24 percent of the homeless have tents, but he did not explain the discrepancy in the figures, including whether he was including those sleeping under tarpaulins in his total.

Occasional downpours have already worsened squalid conditions in makeshift camps dotting the ruined capital following the January 12 quake that killed more than 217,000 people.

Heavy rains arriving in a couple months threaten to turn the camps into a nightmare health scenario if latrines and drainage are not constructed, aid officials say.

Preval met Bachelet under a vine-covered pergola on the grounds of the National Palace, the crumbled walls of the ornate building only a short walk away. Tents belonging to palace employees were set up behind the building.

Bachelet, who leaves office next month, was recently appointed by the United Nations to help advocate for women who were victims of Haiti's quake.

The Chilean president met with a group of women on the palace grounds on Saturday after her talks with Preval.