PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti A French disease expert says there is strong evidence linking United Nations peacekeepers to a cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed more than 2,000 people.

Renaud Piarroux says in a report that the most likely explanation for the outbreak is that Haiti's Artibonite river was contaminated by a base of UN troops from Nepal.

The scientist conducted his research on behalf of the French and Haitian governments. The Associated Press obtained the report today.

Cholera had not been detected in Haiti until late October. Nearly 100,000 people have been infected so far. The UN has denied that its peacekeepers were to blame for the outbreak.