Background: Haplotypes extracted from human DNA can be used for gene mapping and other analysis of genetic patterns within and across populations. A fundamental problem is, however, that current practical laboratory methods do not give haplotype information. Estimation of phased haplotypes of unrelated individuals given their unphased genotypes is known as the haplotype reconstruction or phasing problem. Results: We define three novel statistical models and give an efficient algorithm for haplotype reconstruction, jointly called HaploRec. HaploRec is based on exploiting local regularities conserved in haplotypes: it reconstructs haplotypes so that they have maximal local coherence. This approach