Burma's junta has admitted more than 130,000 people are dead or missing in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
In a shock update to a death toll that had consistently lagged behind international aid agency estimates, state television in the army-ruled former Burma said 77,738 people were dead and another 55,917 missing.
The death toll puts the disaster on a par with a 1991 cyclone that killed 143,000 in neighbouring Bangladesh
The May 2 storm has left another 2.5 million people clinging to survival in the Irrawaddy delta, where thousands of destitute victims are lining roadsides, begging for help in the absence of large-scale government or foreign relief operations.
But the military government claims to be on top of emergency aid distribution for victims of the cyclone, which flooded an area of delta the size of Austria.
Aid groups, including United Nations agencies, say only a fraction of the required food, water and emergency shelter materials is getting through, however, and unless the situation improves thousands more lives are at risk.
Given the junta's ban on foreign journalists and restrictions on the movement of most international aid workers, independent assessments of the situation are difficult.
Torrential tropical downpours lashed Burma’s cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta today as thousands of destitute victims took to roadsides to beg for help to supplement the meagre trickle of aid flowing in.
The junta today issued an edict in state-run newspapers saying legal action would be taken against anybody found hoarding or selling relief supplies, amid rumours of local military units expropriating trucks of food, blankets and water.
The UN says the regime has issued 40 visas to its staffers and another 46 to non-government agencies, but these personnel have been confined to the immediate Rangoon area.
Among those seeking a visa is the world body’s top emergency relief co-ordinator who UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon wants to dispatch to Burma.
The secretary general’s office said John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, would be sent to Burma to try to “open up more access” for UN relief personnel in some of the hardest-hit areas. Holmes has applied for a visa to enter Burma but has not yet received approval to visit, Ban’s office said.
Burma’s military, which has ruled the country for 46 years, has come under suspicion of diverting relief supplies, though it denies the allegation and solid evidence has yet to surface.
Tons of foreign aid - including water, blankets, mosquito nets, tarpaulins, medicines and tents - have been sent to Burma, but delivery has been slowed by bottlenecks, poor infrastructure and bureaucratic tangles.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said countries delivering aid to Burma should insist on monitoring to ensure aid reached the cyclone victims most in need and to prevent the military government from seizing it.
The group also said it confirmed a report this week that the junta had seized high-protein biscuits supplied by the international community and distributed low-quality, locally produced substitutes to the people.
People who have attempted to bring aid from Rangoon to the Irrawaddy River delta, the area worst affected by the cyclone, said they had been blocked and ordered to hand over their supplies to the army, which is directing the relief operation.