The 1.5 million people left destitute by Myanmar's devastating cyclone were increasingly desperate yesterday, as foreign aid trickled in and overstretched aid workers struggled to reach hard-hit areas.

Reports a tropical depression was swirling southwest of Yangon and that it could develop into a major storm sparked concerns that a new tragedy could follow the early May cyclone that left up to 100,000 people dead or missing in the Irrawaddy delta.

"It's terrible. This is always another worry when you have a major disaster, that you have further hazards affecting people," Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman for the UN's humanitarian affairs office, told a news conference in Bangkok.

However, A.R. Subbiah, director for the climate risk management team at the UN's Bangkok-based Asia Disaster Preparedness Center, said:

"It is part of the monsoon system... Nothing to worry... It is very unlikely to develop into some kind of Nargis."

The Myanmar government yesterday invited 160 personnel from neighboring Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand to assist in relief efforts.

But that is a fraction of the thousands of foreign aid workers needed for a "tsunami-style" international aid operation.

Thailand's prime minister flew to Myanmar's main city of Yangon yesterday to try to persuade Prime Minister Thein Sein to let more foreign experts into the pulverized areas.

Samak Sundaravej is hoping for more luck than United Nations and Western officials, whose efforts have had little success.

Experts said the relief effort is only delivering a tenth of the supplies needed.

The international community has flown in tons of medicine, food and shelter materials, but getting it to the low-lying delta area has been complicated by poor equipment and bad weather.

Heavy rains have pelted the region, slowing transportation of aid by land and adding to the misery of tens of thousands of refugees packed into monasteries, schools and pagodas.

Lacking food, water and sanitation, survivors of Cyclone Nargis face the threat of killer diseases such as cholera and in some areas are waiting in vain for help to arrive.

"We have been told by Burmese doctors they have lots of patients with severely infected wounds and they are being hit by outbreaks of communicable diseases like diarrhoea," senior Thai health official Doctor Surachet Satitniramai said.

He said Thailand would send a medical team of 30 tomorrow and Saturday with another 10 tons of supplies and equipment to work for two weeks.

The team, including surgeons, anaesthetists and pyschiatrists, would be sent to work in affected areas.

The WFP said it was looking for helicopters to airlift rice and high-energy biscuits to the Irrawaddy delta and also boats to reach isolated communities.

It said it had provided food to 50,000 people and aimed to reach 750,000 over the next six months.

Still, operations in Myanmar are a shadow of the massive international relief operation kickstarted just days after the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The United States alone deployed thousands of its military and more than a dozen ships in the Indian Ocean. Many other countries provided major help.

So far the US military has made a total of eight flights into Yangon, carrying $390,000 worth of aid including water and food.

"We don't have confirmation of future flights yet but we are very optimistic," said Colonel Douglas Powell, a spokesman for what the military is calling Joint Taskforce "Caring Response".

Three US naval ships were in international waters off Myanmar waiting for the go-ahead from Myanmar's government.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/15/2008 page12)