Desperate survivors cried out for aid on Thursday nearly a week after Cyclone Nargis killed up to 100,000 people, as pressure piled up on Burma to throw its doors open to an international relief operation.
The United States was still awaiting approval from Burma's junta to start military aid flights, but the U.N. food agency and Red Cross/Red Crescent said they have started flying in emergency relief after some delays.
U.S. ambassador Eric John told a news conference in Bangkok that the United States and Thailand had thought the Burma generals had agreed to let a U.S military cargo plane fly in supplies.
But that turned out to be premature.
"We don't have permission yet for the C-130 to go in, but I emphasise 'yet'" John said.
Approval for such a flight would be surprising given the huge distrust and acrimony between the former Burma's generals and Washington, which has imposed tough sanctions to try to end decades of military rule.
Aid has barely trickled into one of the world's most isolated and impoverished countries, although experts feared it would be too little to cope with the aftermath of Nargis, which left up to 100,000 feared dead and one million homeless.
Witnesses saw little evidence of a relief effort under way in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta region.
"We'll starve to death, if nothing is sent to us," said Zaw Win, a 32-year-old fisherman who waded through floating corpses to find a boat for the two-hour journey to Bogalay, a town where the government said 10,000 people were killed.
"We need food, water, clothes and shelter," he told a Reuters reporter.
AID PLANES ARRIVE
The storm pulverised the delta on Saturday with 190 km winds followed by a massive tidal wave that caused most of the casualties and damage, virtually destroying some villages. It was the worst cyclone in Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in neighbouring Bangladesh.
