First US aid flight arrives in Burma

The United States has dispatched its first aid flight to Burma, where some 1.5 million survivors of a massive cyclone are still waiting for help as the relief effort flounders.

The military government said some parts of the disaster zone were still cut off 10 days after disaster struck, and that authorities had not been able to reach people there to discover the extent of the damage.

The flow of international aid into Burma, which says 62,000 people are dead or missing, has increased in the past two days, but relief agencies say much more is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.

Long suspicious of any outside influences that could undermine their total control, the ruling generals reiterated on Monday that foreign experts - who have the expertise to oversee the relief effort - would not be put in charge.

The UN on Monday said it was still awaiting 24 visas for its foreign staff to enter Burma.

"Very few visas have in fact been granted," Catherine Bragg, deputy head of the UN's emergency relief arm, said in a statement, announcing an appeal for $US187 million ($A199 million) to fund its cyclone aid operations.

"Faster progress on this issue is crucial to the effectiveness of the response. If we do not act now, and we do not act fast, more lives will be lost."

The UN has said in an internal report that the true death toll could be 100,000 or more.

Burma's ruling junta on Monday reminded the international community that they would not be allowed to take a lead role in the relief effort.

"Delivery of relief goods can be handled by local organisations," said Economic Development Minister Soe Tha, quoted by the New Light of Myanmar newspaper - the junta's state-run mouthpiece.

He said there were still some parts of the country, also known as Myanmar, where authorities had not been able to visit since the massive storm, which churned up a sea surge that obliterated the southern delta on May 3.

"Supplies were dropped in flooded areas where the helicopters could not land," Soe Tha said.

Aid groups have insisted the regime does not have the capacity to direct the relief operation in the delta, where diarrhoea and other illnesses are starting to threaten survivors living in scenes of almost unimaginable despair.

Ten days after the tragedy struck, bloated corpses are still floating in the water, untold numbers do not have enough food or fuel or clean water - and many people say the government has not turned up with emergency supplies.

"We have not got any aid from anyone," said Man Mu, a mother of five in one of the thousands of tiny delta villages that was pulverised by the storm. One of her children was swept away in the disaster.

"We only have the clothes we are wearing," she said. "We have lost everything."

The United States on Monday delivered its first airlift carrying emergency relief supplies to Burma.

A military C-130 cargo plane packed with supplies left a Thai air force base on Monday and landed in Burma's biggest city Rangoon. Two more air shipments are scheduled to land on Tuesday.

A US Navy commander said three ships were sailing towards Burma, ready to aid cyclone victims if they are given permission.

"We have three of our amphibious ships that are part of the 7th fleet that are headed that way right now," Vice Admiral Doug Crowder told reporters in Jakarta.

As it showed in the Asian tsunami disaster of 2004, the US is perhaps the only country with the military manpower and equipment to carry out a vast and immediate relief effort of the kind needed.

But there is no question of Burma, which has suffered under years of sanctions imposed by Washington, allowing in the military of the United States - or indeed any other nation.

Other international aid flights have been increasing however, and a Red Cross spokesman that nine of its planes will have reached Rangoon by day's end. But aid groups stress that far more is needed.

"It's not true that nothing is happening at all, but not enough is happening," said Frank Smithuis of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

UN and US diplomats have said they believe at least 100,000 are dead, but relief agencies have struggled to get a clear picture of the situation on the ground in one of the world's most impoverished and isolated nations.

Andrew Kirkwood of Save the Children, one of the few agencies allowed to operate under tight controls inside Burma, said there were now outbreaks of fever and diarrhoea among survivors.

He said many people were also suffering from wind-burn, after spending days out in the elements after their homes were destroyed.