Rain lashes Myanmar cyclone survivors

YANGON (Reuters) - Heavy rains pelted homeless cyclonesurvivors in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Tuesday, complicatingalready slow delivery of aid to more than 1.5 million peoplefacing hunger and disease.

As more foreign aid trickled into the former Burma, criticsratcheted up the pressure on its military rulers to acceleratea relief effort that is only delivering an estimated one-tenthof the supplies needed in the devastated delta.

"The response of the regime in Burma to this crisis hasbeen absolutely callous and those paying the price of thiscallousness have been the long-suffering Burmese people,"Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told parliament.

An Australian air force plane landed in Yangon, Myanmar'smain city, with 31 tonnes of emergency supplies, a day afterthe first U.S. military aid flight arrived in a countryWashington has described as an "outpost of tyranny."

Two more U.S. flights were due on Tuesday as part of a"confidence building" effort to prod Myanmar's reclusivegenerals into allowing a larger international relief operation11 days after the disaster left up to 100,000 dead or missing.

Tens of thousands of people throughout the delta arecrammed into monasteries, schools and other buildings afterarriving in towns that were on the breadline even before thedisaster.

Lacking food, water and sanitation, they face the threat ofkiller diseases such as cholera. Heavy rains added to themisery of survivors with little shelter.

"Where I am now there's over 10,000 homeless people andit's pouring rain," Bridget Gardener of the International RedCross said during a rare tour of the delta by a foreign aidofficial.

While a steady stream of aid flights have landed in Yangon,only a fraction of the relief needed is getting to the deltadue to flooding and because the junta is keeping most foreignaid and logistics experts either out of the country or inYangon.

The World Food Programme said it was able to deliver lessthan 20 percent of the 375 tonnes of food a day it wanted tomove into the flooded delta.

"CRITICAL POINT"

International relief organisations say their local staffare stretched to breaking point, while Medicins Sans Frontieres(MSF) said its workers faced "increasing constraints" in thedelta.

One Yangon businessman just back from a personal aidmission to Bogalay, a delta township where at least 10,000people were killed, said the army was appropriating aid.

"There are still some villages in the worst-hit areas thatnobody has got to," the man, in his late 30s, told Reuters.

"Around Bogalay, private donors are not allowed todistribute their assistance to the victims themselves. We hadto hand over what we had."

The junta has welcomed "aid from any nation" but has madeit very clear it does not want outsiders distributing it.

At the United Nations in New York, Secretary-General BanKi-moon delivered his most critical comments to date.

"I want to register my deep concern -- and immensefrustration -- at the unacceptably slow response to this gravehumanitarian crisis," he told reporters.

"We are at a critical point," he said. "Unless more aidgets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak ofinfectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis."

Speaking after the first U.S. military aid flight toMyanmar on Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush condemned thejunta for failing to act more quickly to accept internationalhelp, saying "either they are isolated or callous."

"It's been days and no telling how many people have losttheir lives as a result of the slow response," he said in aradio interview with CBS News.

Myanmar state television raised its official toll to 31,938dead and 29,770 missing on Monday. Most of the casualties werekilled by the 12-foot (3.5 metre) wall of water that hit thedelta along with the cyclone's 190 kph (120 mph) winds.

The cyclone raged through an area that is home to nearlyhalf of the country's 53 million people, as well as its mainrice-growing region. About 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq miles) of landremain under water.

France was sending a warship carrying 1,500 tonnes of ricewhich was expected near Myanmar later this week. Paris says itwants to distribute the food directly itself, but will not doso without authorisation.

The United States will also have three ships near Myanmarthis week, and Britain was sending a navy ship to the region tohelp humanitarian operations.

(Additional reporting by Carmel Crimmins in BANGKOK)

(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Ed Cropley andValerie Lee)