By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - The 1.5 million people left destitute byMyanmar's devastating cyclone were increasingly desperate onWednesday, as foreign aid remained at a trickle andoverstretched aid workers struggled to reach hard-hit areas.
Reports a tropical depression was swirling southwest ofYangon and a U.S. advisory that it could develop into a cyclonein the next 24 hours sparked concerns of a new tragedyfollowing the early May storm that left up to 100,000 peopledead or missing in the Irrawaddy delta.
"It's terrible. This is always another worry when you havea major disaster, that you have further hazards affectingpeople," Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s humanitarianaffairs office, told a news conference in Bangkok.
However, the U.S. advisory said conditions did not yetmerit a full cyclone warning, while Tropical Storm Risk(http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/), which offers information ontropical storms for the insurance industry, among others, didnot show tropical cyclone activity as of 0843 GMT (9:43 a.m.British time).
Meanwhile, in a gesture to critics who say outside aid iscritical, Myanmar's reclusive military rulers invited 160personnel from neighbouring Bangladesh, China, India andThailand to assist in delayed and sometimes chaotic reliefefforts.
But that is a fraction of the thousands of foreign aidworkers needed for a "tsunami-style" international aidoperation.
"It's just awful. People are in just desperate need,begging as vehicles go past," Gordon Bacon, an emergencycoordinator for the International Rescue Committee, toldReuters from Yangon.
Thailand's prime minister flew to Myanmar's main city ofYangon on Wednesday to try to persuade Prime Minister TheinSein to let more foreign experts into the pulverised areas.
Samak Sundaravej is hoping for more luck than UnitedNations and Western officials, whose efforts have had littlesuccess.
AID DIVERTED?
Some have suggested food and other urgent supplies may havebeen diverted by Myanmar's ruling junta rather than goingstraight to helpless victims, many homeless and some barefoot.
But a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman in Bangkok saidof high-energy food it had sent: "We collected the biscuits atthe (Yangon) airport and they remain in our possession."
In any case, experts said the relief effort -- furthercomplicated by heavy rains and the threat of a possible secondcyclone -- is only delivering a tenth of the supplies needed.
The international community has flown in tonnes ofmedicine, food and shelter materials, but getting it to thelow-lying delta area has been complicated by poor equipment,bad weather and government intransigence.
Heavy rains have pelted the region, slowing transportationof aid by land and adding to the misery of tens of thousands ofrefugees packed into monasteries, schools and pagodas.
Lacking food, water and sanitation, survivors of CycloneNargis face the threat of killer diseases such as cholera andin some areas are waiting in vain for help to arrive.
"If these people aren't reached and aid got to themquickly, and shelter and toilet facilities, disease will breakout," the International Rescue Committee's Bacon said.
The WFP said it was looking for helicopters to airlift riceand high-energy biscuits down to the delta and also boats toreach isolated communities along the Irrawaddy river.
It said it had provided food to 50,000 people and aimed toreach 750,000 over the next six months.
Operations in Myanmar are a shadow of the massiveinternational relief operation kick-started just days after the2004 Asian tsunami.
The United States alone deployed thousands of its militaryand more than a dozen ships in the Indian Ocean, and many othercountries provided major help.
But Myanmar's junta has made it clear it does not wantWesterners distributing aid.
Foreign experts in sanitation, nutrition and medicine haveeither been prevented from entering the country formerly knownas Burma or are restricted to Yangon.
Armed police sent back foreigners who attempted to passthrough checkpoints surrounding the former capital.
(Additional reporting by Darren Schuettler and NoppornWong-Anan in BANGKOK)
(Writing by Carmel Crimmins and Jerry Norton; Editing byValerie Lee)
(For more stories on Myanmar cyclone follow the link toReuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org)
