The latest toll makes the disaster the worst in Asia since nearly 6,000 people died when an earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java in 2006.

Foreign Minister U Nyan Win told state television yesterday: 'According to the latest information, more than 10,000 people were killed.

'Information is still being collected, and there could be more casualties.'

The official death toll on Sunday was 351.

Welcoming Thailand's promise to send emergency food and medicine, Mr Nyan Win said: 'We will welcome help like this from other countries because our people are in difficulty.'

Diplomats said there is an urgent need for roofing materials, medicine, water-purifying tablets and mosquito nets.

The disaster came just days before a referendum on a draft Constitution that pro-democracy advocates said would merely perpetuate the military's nearly four-decades-long grip on power.

How the disaster will affect Myanmar's political course is uncertain, but residents of Yangon, a city of 6.5 million, say they are angry that the government failed to properly warn them of the approaching storm and has done little to help them.

Yangon, where officials said 59 people died, was without electricity yesterday except where gas-fed generators were available. Residents lined up to buy candles at double last week's prices.

With pumps not working, families were forced to stand in long lines for drinking water and bathe in the city's lakes.

Most telephone landlines and cellphone and Internet connections were down.

With the city plunged into almost total darkness overnight, security concerns mounted. Many shops sold their goods through partially opened doors or iron grilles. Looting was reported at several fresh-food markets, where thieves took vegetables and other items.

Some in Yangon also complained that the 400,000-strong military was clearing only streets where the ruling elite resided, leaving residents, including Buddhist monks, to cope on their own.

'There are some army trucks out to clear the roads, but most of the work was done with a dah (knife) by the people,' said Mr Barry Broman, a retired United States State Department officer visiting Yangon when the cyclone struck.

'Thousands of trees were uprooted. All the roads were blocked by the trees.'

Mr Richard Horsey, a Bangkok-based spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the storm left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and without clean drinking water.

Although talks were still ongoing, Mr Horsey said it appeared the UN had the green light to send in a team to assess the storm's damage as early as today.

Meanwhile, UN and private aid agencies were rushing to prepare assistance for victims of the cyclone.

The European Commission has released 2 million euros (S$4 million) in initial emergency aid, while the US Embassy in Myanmar has authorised the immediate release of US$250,000 (S$340,000).

Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo wrote to his Myanmar counterpart yesterday to convey his sympathies and Singapore's offer of humanitarian assistance.

Also in Singapore, Mr Myo Myint Maung, 23, a student and spokesman for the Overseas Burmese Patriots group, said the Myanmar community started collecting donations on Sunday evening, and by yesterday had raised around S$2,000.

He said dozens of his Myanmar compatriots had gone to the four shops picked as collection centres at Peninsula Plaza to donate money for relief efforts.

'The money will be sent to a non-profit organisation in Myanmar which provides free burial services for the victims whose families cannot afford to bury them. The collection drive will probably last for a week,' he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KOR KIAN BENG IN SINGAPORE

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