Another storm likely this month

Yangon: The UN food agency on Friday said it will resume aid flights to cyclone-struck Myanmar despite the military government's seizure of deliveries at the airport in the capital Yangon.

The agency initially said it was suspending flights after Myanmar officials, apparently determined to distribute supplies on their own, impounded the shipments intended to feed survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

"The World Food Programme (WFP) has decided to send in two relief flights as planned tomorrow, while discussions continue with the Government of Myanmar on the distribution of the food that was flown in today, and not released to us," Nancy E. Roman, WFP's communications director, said yesterday.

Worst cyclone

The official toll remains at nearly 23,000, with 42,119 people missing, making Nargis the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991 when 143,000 people were killed in Bangladesh. State media have not updated the number of casualties since Tuesday. The impounded shipments contained 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, enough to feed 95,000 people. They were meant to be loaded on trucks and sent to the inundated Irrawaddy delta where most of the estimated 1.5 million cyclone victims need food, water and shelter.

Governments around the world have pressed Myanmar's ruling generals to open the country's borders to desperately-needed assistance, and yesterday Germany said it agreed with a proposal by France to use the UN Security Council. The Myanmar government has stated its preference through the state-run media to accept "relief in cash and kind" but not foreign aid workers, many of whom are still waiting for visas in Thailand's capital Bangkok.

Planes loaded with food and equipment from several Asian countries have landed in Yangon in the past few days and two flights with supplies from the WFP.