US President George W Bush has denounced Burma's military rulers over their halting response to the devastating cyclone Nargis, as the first US aid delivery finally arrived there.

"Either they are isolated or callous," Mr Bush told CBS Radio."There's no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow response."

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He said the "world ought to be angry and condemn" the junta, which has been widely condemned for stalling international attempts to help in the disaster relief effort.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon echoed his words, slamming the "unacceptably slow" actions of the junta and urging the generals to accelerate aid distribution.

"Today is the 11th day since typhoon Nargis hit," Ban told a press conference. "I want to register my deep concern and immense frustration on the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis."

A US military transport plane laden with emergency supplies was permitted to land on Monday, and two more US flights are due to arrive later on Tuesday.

'Unimaginable horror'

"We know that it is a small salve for a much larger wound. More has to get into Burma. More has to reach the areas that have been hardest hit," said US ambassador to Thailand Eric John.

"It is absolutely critical that disaster response specialists be allowed into Burma. It is important that we and the international community be allowed to help the victims of this unimaginable horror."

The flow of aid into Myanmar, which says 62,000 people are dead or missing, has increased in the past two days, but relief agencies say much more is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.

State television on Monday raised the death toll by some 3,480 to 31,938 with another 29,770 still missing. The United Nations says more than 100,000 are likely to have been killed.

A total of 1.5 million cyclone survivors are at grave risk from hunger and potentially lethal diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid. 

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The UN also said the relief operation was only at 10 percent of the level needed to bring water, food and supplies to desperate survivors, and that just 20 percent of the food required was making its way in.

Deeply suspicious of any outside influences that may undermine their total control, the generals reiterated that foreign experts - who have the know-how to oversee the relief effort - would not be put in charge.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the curbs as "completely unacceptable", and urged the regime to allow aid agencies "unfettered" access, while Mr Ban called on Burma to expedite visas for relief personnel.

Ten days after the tragedy struck, bloated corpses are still floating in the water, disease is breaking out among survivors with little food or shelter, and many say the government has given them nothing.

"We have not got any aid from anyone," said Man Mu, a mother of five in one of the thousands of tiny delta villages that were pulverised by the storm. One of her children was swept away in the disaster.

"We only have the clothes we are wearing. We have lost everything."


Source: SBS staff and agencies