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 The United Nations said Wednesday Burma's military regime was cooperating with the international community to allow relief goods into the country, but not at the speed needed to counter the destruction by the cyclone that has killed tens of thousands of people.

 Nearly a week after the cyclone hit Burma, the first UN team was expected in Rangoonn only on Thursday, flying from the Brindisi base in southern Italy, while Burma-based UN staff had been trying to provide help already at hand.

 Four planes carrying 70 tonnes of food and other emergency aid were headed for Burma to bring relief to the victims, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday.

 The planes loaded with high energy biscuits were due to arrive in Rangoonn Thursday morning.

 Burma authorities on Tuesday night raised the death toll from the disaster to about 22,500 with more than 41,000 people still listed as missing.

 But international observers cautioned that it could climb much higher. The top US diplomat in Burma on Wednesday said the death toll from the weekend cyclone that hit the southeast Asian country could reach 100,000 once all missing people have been accounted for.

 Aung So, director of the officer of the country's exile government in the Thai city of Mae Sot, also said "we are assuming that at least 100,000 have died." Rangoonn, Burma's largest city and home to millions of people, was among the places worst hit by the cyclone, which struck the country's central coastal region packing 200-kilometre-per-hour winds last Friday.

 Only stone-built houses were left standing after the storm, said Salome Roller, a worker with the German aid organisation Kindernothilfe.

 In Irrawaddy Delta, "both the living and the dead were washed over a distance that normally one would need a boat three hours to travel," according to a statement by the aid organisation ADRA. Many of the effected people are surviving on coconut milk, it added.

 In some affected villages along the Irrawaddy Delta, 95 per cent of houses had been destroyed. In Rangoonn, access to running water and electricity had been severely limited, the Red Cross said.

 But reports emerging from the country indicate that the actual extent of the damage from the monster storm, which smashed into the central coast region with 200-kilometre-per-hour winds and inundated the Irrawaddy Delta with tidal waves and floodwaters, was still unknown as aid agencies find themselves hindered by overflowing rivers and flooded roads.

 The Irrawaddy Delta has in the meantime been set off limits by the government, which has allowed in only aid workers.

 Meanwhile, the distribution of World Food Programme aid that was already in the country has been slowed by safety concerns.

 "We've been struggling to get the stuff out there but there were concerns, on the part of the truck operators, about the extent to which their safety would be compromised," said Chris Kaye, the World Food Programme director in Burma.

 He said the WFP was awaiting further information from assessment teams in the field before distributing more food "to those who need it the most." The WFP had hired privately owned trucks to transport the first deliveries of food to Labutta, a coastal town that lost more than 1,000 people in the cyclone and its accompanying tidal waves.

 In New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged faster provisions of aid to the country. "The secretary general believes that this is a critical moment for the people of Burma, and emphasizes the importance of providing as much assistance as possible in the vital first few days following the cyclone's impact," said John Holmes, UN undersecretary general for emergency humanitarian assistance.

"He welcomes today's news that some UN aid officials will be allowed into Burma tomorrow, which will assist assessment and prioritization efforts."

"Given the magnitude of this disaster, the Secretary-General urges the government of Burma to respond to the outpouring of international support and solidarity by facilitating the arrival of aid workers, and the clearance of relief supplies in every way possible," he said.

 The UN had asked Burma's military regime to waive visa requirements for aid workers, but authorizations were trickling in to applicants assembled in Bangkok.

 The UN will issue on Friday a flash appeal for assistance based on assessments being carried out by the UN there.

 In Geneva, the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) launched an initial appeal Wednesday for 6 million dollars in emergency aid.

 An estimated 24 million people, half the country's population, are thought to be affected. The Red Cross called it Burma's deadliest storm since 1991.

 The cyclone hit after the main paddy crop had been planted, and Burma is facing a serious short-term and possible long-term problem in feeding its people.

 The rich alluvial plains of the Irrawaddy account for at least 60 per cent of Burma's rice crop, the country's staple food. Nobody yet knows how much rice the government had stockpiled, but it can be assumed that many warehouses were damaged by the storm.

 UN experts were predicting more rice price hikes on the world market as the world body is forced to buy emergency supplies in the coming months to stave off widespread shortages in Burma.

 The situation has forced Burma's junta into a situation of unprecedented dependence on the international community for help.

 To the surprise of some, the ruling junta, which has prided itself in the past on its indifference to international opinion, has had to appeal for disaster relief in order to save its own people and, ironically, to save itself.

 "If they don't get enough proper assistance out in the next couple of days or weeks the people will be very angry, and that anger might overcome their fear because they may feel they have nothing to lose," said Win Min, a lecturer on Burma affairs at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

 While acknowledging that they need emergency aid from the international community, Burma's junta appears to be trying its best to claim the credit for the largesse by controlling its distribution to the devastated countryside.

 "They are delaying visas for foreign aid workers, which is a clear sign that they want the materials but don't want the foreign workers," said Win Min.

 Meanwhile, Western donors are trying to make sure the emergency relief is delivered and a major disaster averted, while at the same time trying to assure that it is not squandered.

 Despite the cyclone, the junta plans to go ahead with the May 10 referendum, although it has postponed the vote in 47 of the worst-hit townships until May 24.   

   Meanwhile, a 20-member Bangladesh army rescue team left the capital Dhaka for cyclone-battered neighbouring Burma to help in emergency relief distribution and salvage operation, officials said.

 The team led by Brigadier General Taslim Uddin is also carrying medicine, water purifying tablets, oral saline, sacks of potatoes and clothes on a TC-130 transport plane.

 In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that if Burma's authorities continued to lag in cooperating with foreign aid agencies, France will take the case to the UN Security Council.

 In Dublin, Irish President Mary McAleese's office said Ireland had offered 1 million euros (1.5 million dollars) in relief.