Myanmar cyclone death toll rises to 22,500

Yangon: The death toll in Myanmar from devastating Cyclone Nargis has just been raised to almost 22,500 people, state media reported on Tuesday.

An additional 41,000 people were missing, which rammed through the country on Saturday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said on state-run television that the death toll included 10,000 people killed in one town alone.

Thirty thousand people were also missing in Myanmar , Thai Foreign Minister Noppadol Pattama said after a meeting with Myanmar's ambassador to Bangkok on Tuesday

The government was still assessing damage in remote villages in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta area and Yangon but has lifted states of emergency in three cyclone-hit states and some parts of Yangon and Irrawaddy.

Seven towns in Irrawaddy district southwest of Yangon, and 40 towns in Yangon remained emergency disaster zones.

State television showed images of entire communities that were flooded since Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck late on Friday. Myanmar's foreign minister said the military government welcomed international aid.

The United Nations said hundreds of thousands of people had been left homeless when the storm, packing winds of 190 kilometres per hour, ripped through the countryside, destroying entire villages in its fury.

Thousands of buildings were flattened as the furious cyclone also ripped power lines to shreds, uprooted trees that blocked key roads and disrupted water supplies in the main city and former capital, Yangon.

"I haven't seen anything like this in my whole life," one elderly resident said.

UN officials say hundreds of thousands are without shelter or drinking water and that aid agencies are pulling out all the stops to send in emergency aid such as food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting.