U.S. diplomat: Cyclone toll could be 100,000

Prices double
Vendors sold bottled water at 500 kyat — about 50 cents — a liter, more than double the normal price. A standard 73-pound bag of rice had doubled in price to about $40 — an astronomical price in a country where many scrape by on $2 a day.

The U.N.'s World Food Program said late Tuesday it has begun distributing aid in damaged areas of Yangon, where 800 tons of food had arrived.

But some villages have been almost totally eradicated, and vast rice-growing areas were wiped out by Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar early Saturday, the WFP said.

Images from state TV showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the Irrawaddy River delta, which is regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.

Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns wielding knives and axes joined Yangon residents Tuesday in clearing roads of ancient, fallen trees that were once the city's pride. Soldiers were out on the streets in large numbers for the first time since the cyclone hit.

Britain said it will contribute up to about $9.8 million in initial relief funds and will send an emergency field team to help with international relief efforts.

U.S. offers $3 million
The United States said it was giving $3 million to U.N. agencies to help with their efforts. The European Union will provide $3.1 million.

China is providing $1 million in aid, including relief materials worth $500,000, to help with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts, a spokesman said.

Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, pledged $1 million in aid on Wednesday.

But the United States and France complained about Myanmar's reluctance to accept direct aid.

Kouchner said France minimized its aid to about $309,000. He said Myanmar officials are willing to accept aid but insist on distributing it themselves, which he said was "not a good way of doing things."

The cyclone came only a week ahead of a key referendum on a constitution backed by Myanmar's military leaders as an important step forward on their "roadmap to democracy."

State radio also said Saturday's vote would be delayed until May 24 in most of the townships in the Yangon area and seven in the Irrawaddy delta. But it indicated that the balloting would proceed in other areas as scheduled.

The decision drew swift criticism from dissidents and human rights groups who question the credibility of the vote and urged the junta to focus on disaster victims.

Military rule
On Wednesday, about 30 Filipino protesters demanded that Myanmar's junta postpone the constitutional referendum and allow the unrestricted entry of international relief.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.

At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests in September led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.

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