Food aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar will run out in less than three weeks unless more international donations are allowed to come through, the UN has warned. The UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says millions of survivors from the cyclone in early May are still without basic food supplies.
The UN warning contrasts with an optimistic assessment from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), which said on Tuesday that the needs of cyclone survivors were being met.
The regional bloc includes Myanmar among its 10-nation membership.
An Asean assessment report on the cyclone is due in mid-July but speaking in Yangon on Tuesday the group's secretary-general said assessment teams had had "unlimited and unfettered" access to the disaster region.
"The basic needs of the victims are being met for their early recovery," Surin Pitsuwan said.
Deadly path
Cyclone Nargis tore a deadly path through the Irrawaddy Delta region of central Myanmar, leaving more than 84,000 dead, according to the latest figures from the country's military government.
An estimated 42 per cent of food stocks in the cyclone-affected areas were destroyed by the storm.
The World Food Programme has said its available rice supplies will only last until the end of June.
Myanmar's military government was widely criticised by aid agencies and the UN for its slow response to the disaster and its unwillingness to allow access to international aid teams in the crucial early days after the storm.
In a speech on Tuesday, Kyaw Thu, Myanamar's deputy foreign minister, said the government had seen "less and less requests for emergency assistance coming from communities and local authorities" in the Irrawaddy Delta region.
"Various reports indicate that the worst of the crisis may have stabilised, although it is by no means over."
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