The coherent X-ray diffraction from an isolated strained nano-crystal is given by the Fourier transform of a complex-valued electron density where the modulus and phase are linked to the physical electron density and the displacement field, respectively. The possibility to reconstruct a complex-valued object from a coherent diffraction pattern is demonstrated using iterative algorithms. In the case of a 2D intensity slice, the reconstructed 2D object is strongly dependent on the distribution function of the displacement field values along the direction perpendicular to the observation plane. It is shown that valuable 3D information can, however, still be extracted. This work is of particular interest as soon as the complete 3D measurement is not accessible. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.