22,000 killed in Burma cyclone

Another 41,000 people are missing and aid organisations are still waiting for permission from the ruling military junta to move into the country in force.

Phone lines are down, most roads virtually impassible and few aircraft are available to reach the more remote areas. Amid the death and chaos are growing fears that deadly diseases will spread through the surviving population in a country with one of the world's poorest public health systems.

Concerns are also mounting over the lack of food, water and shelter in the Irrawaddy delta. "Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself," said a UN Children's Fund spokeswoman.

The government, which normally shuns international attention, has appealed for foreign aid and also announced it is delaying a crucial constitutional referendum in the hardest-hit areas.

Pro-democracy advocates, including the political party of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi, have denounced the constitution as a way to maintain the power of a military that has become increasingly unpopular, if not hated, by many.

Inadequate warnings about the approaching storm and the poor response by authorities once it struck will further anger the general population. The government had apparently taken few efforts to prepare for the storm, which came bearing down on the country from the Bay of Bengal late on Friday.

State radio said most of the dead and missing were in the delta region swept by tidal waves. It said 671 were killed in the Rangoon area.

The government said it was trying to move in aid and some foreign agencies had managed to send assessment teams, including five from Unicef.

A spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid said : "The biggest problem will be to reach the affected areas. There will be a huge logistical problem."