[ColdDayInHell]

More than 10,000 people were killed in a devastating cyclone that hit western Burma on Saturday, Foreign Minister Nyan Win has said on state TV.

He said his government was ready to accept international assistance. Aid shipments are now being prepared.

Thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis are lacking shelter, drinking water, power and communications, but in many regions help has not yet arrived.

Five regions in which 24 million people live have been declared disaster zones.

Expressing his sadness at the scale of the disaster, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that UN officials were meeting Burmese government representatives to discuss how to help.

If the toll is confirmed, Nargis is now the world's deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India killed 10,000 people.

Nargis hit the south-east Asian country on Saturday with wind speeds reaching 190km/h (120mph). It brought with it a sea surge that smashed through towns and villages.

Earlier on Monday, the death toll was being put at 351 but the foreign minister later went on TV to announce the figure of at least 10,000.

With information still coming in, he warned the toll could yet rise.

The towns of Bogalay and Laputta, in the region of Irrawaddy, are among those locations particularly badly hit, state media have reported.

None of the casualty figures have been independently confirmed.

The BBC is not permitted to report from Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Houses 'skeletal'

Thousands of buildings have been flattened, power lines downed, trees uprooted, roads blocked and water supplies disrupted.

A Rangoon resident who spoke to relatives in Laputta told BBC Burmese that 75% to 80% of the town had been destroyed.

Houses along the coast had been reduced to skeletal structures, 16 villages had been virtually wiped out and no help had reached Laputta, he said.

Pictures on state TV show security services working to clear roads but in Rangoon and elsewhere there are complaints that the response to the disaster has been weak.

"Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year," a retired government worker complained to Reuters news agency.

He was referring to protests led by Buddhist monks last year that were quickly put down.

Earlier, a BBC journalist monitoring the situation in Burma from Bangkok, Soe Win, said the shortages of power and water were particularly critical.

Local people were saying that if the situation continued for another two or three days, it would be really difficult for them, he reported.

Aid assessment

Several hundred thousand people are in need of shelter and clean drinking water, UN disaster response official Richard Horsey said.

But damage to roads and communications mean it is impossible to tell the true extent of the situation, he added.

Prices of food, fuel and basic necessities have also risen dramatically.

The UN and international aid agencies are sending assessment teams to the worst-hit areas and shipments are being prepared.

Thailand has announced it is flying in a transport plane loaded with nine tonnes of food and medicines and India is sending two naval ships carrying food, tents, blankets, clothing and medicines.

The US, which released an immediate funding package of $250,000 (£127,000) to be channelled through the UN, said that Burmese authorities had refused permission for an American disaster assistance response team to enter.

Meanwhile, Burma's military junta has said a referendum on a new national constitution will go ahead on Saturday. People were "eagerly looking forward to voting", it said.

But some people are now wondering if this natural disaster could have serious political repercussions, reports the BBC's Andrew Harding in the Thai capital Bangkok.

DEADLIEST RECENT STORMS

• Hurricane Katrina, US, 2005 - at least 1,836 dead
• Orissa Cyclone, 1999, Northern India - at least 10,000 dead
• Hurricane Mitch, 1998, Central America - at least 11,000 dead
• Typhoon Thelma, 1991, Philippines - 6,000 dead
• Bangladesh cyclone, 1991 - about 138,000 dead
• Bhola cyclone, 1970 - at least 300,000 dead

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