PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti’s government and  its foreign relief partners plan to start “decompressing”  earthquake-stricken Port-au-Prince by clearing rubble to allow  displaced families to return home or be temporarily resettled,  Haitian and U.N. officials said yesterday.

The plan, which will require private contractors for some  of the debris removal, demolition and rebuilding, is expected  to get underway this week, over six weeks after the magnitude 7  quake that shattered swathes of the sprawling, hilly capital.

In what some experts are calling the deadliest natural  disaster in modern times, the Jan. 12 Haitian quake may have  killed up to 300,000 people, the country’s president says,  while more than a million more are homeless.

Most of these are sheltering in ramshackle encampments that  cram every space of the capital, mixed in with the rubble of  pancaked and collapsed buildings that lie on every side of  streets clogged with people, refuse, traders and traffic.

The “Debris Management Plan” drawn up by experts from the  United Nations, the United States and other countries with  Haitian government officials marks the next big push by the  international relief operation following major distributions of  food, water and shelter materials to earthquake victims.

“The city is so crowded that there are no open spaces to  put people,” said Charles Clermont, a member of the Haitian  government commission spearheading the city recovery plan.

“Before the rainy season, we have to take the debris out,  clear the drainage canals, demolish what needs to be demolished  … that will give us the room,” Clermont told Reuters.

Haiti’s rainy season typically begins in late March or  April.

U.N. officials said one of the plan’s objectives was to  “get people back into safe homes and businesses as quickly as  possible,” a huge challenge in a city where more than 250,000  homes and buildings have been destroyed or damaged, creating an  estimated 63 million tonnes of rubble, according to the U.N..