Myanmar junta allows U.S. military relief flights

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta gave the U.S. militarypermission to fly in relief supplies for the survivors ofCyclone Nargis, Thai Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradittold Reuters on Thursday.

"We have helped the Americans to talk to the Myanmargovernment to allow U.S. planes participating in Cobra Gold tofly humanitarian aid to Myanmar. They just agreed," he said,referring to joint U.S.-Thai military exercises.

A U.S. embassy official confirmed the decision andBoonsrang said the first flights could leave Thailand within aday or two.

"They were very suspicious that the Americans would do morethan just distribute relief supplies, but we helped convincethe Burmese to allow the Americans in," Boonsrang said.

The decision is a surprise given the huge distrust andacrimony between the former Burma's generals and Washington,which has imposed tough sanctions to try to end decades ofmilitary rule.

However, international pressure had been building on thejunta to throw its doors wide open to an international reliefoperation for the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when143,000 people were killed in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Aid has been barely trickling into one of the world's mostisolated and impoverished countries, although experts feared itwould be too little to cope with the aftermath of Nargis, whichleft up to 100,000 feared dead and one million homeless.

Witnesses saw little evidence of a relief effort under wayin the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta region.

"We'll starve to death, if nothing is sent to us," said ZawWin, a 32-year-old fisherman who waded through floating corpsesto find a boat for the two-hour journey to Bogalay, a townwhere the government said 10,000 people were killed.

"We need food, water, clothes and shelter." AID FLIGHTS

DELAYED

The storm pulverised the delta on Saturday with 190 km (120mph) winds followed by a massive tidal wave that caused most ofthe casualties and damage, virtually destroying some villages.

U.N. officials had earlier complained that an airlift ofemergency supplies for the victims was delayed on Thursday,awaiting clearance to land from the military government.

"They need assistance today. They needed it yesterday,"Tony Banbury, Asia regional director of the U.N. World FoodProgramme WFP, said in Bangkok.

"They can't wait and they shouldn't be asked to wait untiltomorrow and it's crucial that food, water, shelter and medicalsupplies need to go in right away."

Another WFP official said three planes were waiting ontarmacs in Bangkok, Dhaka and Dubai with 38 tonnes of supplies.

Myanmar's generals had issued an appeal for internationalassistance, but have been dragging their feet over issuingvisas to foreign aid workers.

WFP spokesman Paul Risley said aid agencies normally expectto fly in experts and supplies within 48 hours of a disaster,but nearly a week after the Myanmar cyclone, few internationalgroups have been able to send reinforcements into Myanmar.

State media are reporting a death toll of 22,980 with42,119 missing, although diplomats and disaster experts saidthe real figure from the massive storm surge that swept intothe Irrawaddy delta is likely to be much higher.

"The information that we're receiving indicates that theremay well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area," ShariVillarosa, charge d'affaires of the U.S. embassy in Myanmar,said in a teleconference with reporters in Washington.

(Additional reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan in Bangkok;Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by Grant McCool)