Myanmar's military junta believes a devastating cyclone has killed at least
10,000 people and agrees to accept international assistance, as the country's
prime minister, General Thein Sein, visits some of those affected.

 MYANMAR (MAY 5, 2008) MRTV -

Myanmar's military junta believes at least 10,000 people died in a
cyclone that ripped through the Irrawaddy delta, triggering a massive
international aid response for the pariah southeast Asian nation on Monday
(May 5).
    "The basic message was that they believe the provisional death
toll was about 10,000 with 3,000 missing," a Yangon-based diplomat told
Reuters in Bangkok, summarising a briefing from Foreign Minister Nyan Win.
"It's a very serious toll."
    The scale of the disaster from Saturday's (May 3) devastating cyclone
drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated
generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami.
    The regime appointed the prime minister, General Thein Sein, to lead
its relief effort. On Monday (May 5) he toured areas hit by the storm and
addressed some of the thousands of people affected.
    The secretive military, which has ruled the former Burma for 46 years,
has moved even further into the shadows in the past six months due to the
widespread outrage at its bloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks
in September.
    The official cyclone death toll on state media stands at 3,394 dead and
2,879 missing, although those figures only cover two of the five declared
disaster zones, where U.N. officials say hundreds of thousands of people are
without shelter or drinking water.
    The casualty count has been rising quickly as authorities reach
hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the former "rice
bowl of Asia", which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis's 190 km (120 mile)
per hour winds.
    After getting a "careful green light" from the government,
the United Nations said it was pulling out all the stops to send in emergency
aid such as food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting.
    Despite the devastation, Myanmar's leaders, in the isolated new capital
of Naypyidaw 400 kilometres (240 miles) north of Yangon, said they would go
ahead with a May 10 referendum on a new army-drafted constitution that critics
say will entrench the military.
    "The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly
looking forward to voting," the junta said in a statement.
    The last major storm to ravage Asia was Cyclone Sidr, which killed
3,300 people in Bangladesh last November.