Even with 100,000 deads Mad Generals still wont let aid workers Into Burma

As many as 60,000 people may have died in the May 3 cyclone that struck Burma, the United Nations said on as it called on the military to allow international workers to start relief operations.

Burma's state television reported on Tuesday that 22,000 people died and more than 40,000 are missing after the southern Irrawaddy delta that feeds into the Andaman Sea was swamped by a surge of water as high as 3.5 metres, the UN's IRIN news agency said. Aid officials said they are waiting for the military to approve entry visas.

"We are in close contact with the government on the response," said Chris Kaye of the World Food Programme. The WFP is distributing the 800 metric tons of food stocks it holds in Rangoon, the former capital, Kaye said.

More than one million people may be homeless after Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the country, causing the worst natural disaster in Southeast Asia since the tsunami in 2004 killed more than 220,000 people across the Indian Ocean.

The military rulers are "suspicious of outsiders and very sensitive to foreign influences," Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. "They admitted to 22,000" people killed, she said. "I believe the figure is higher than that. Somebody said 150,000 and I don't think that's untrue."