Myanmar says parts of country still cut off

YANGON - Parts of Myanmar were still cut off Monday 10 days after Cyclone Nargis hit, an official said in state media, reiterating that foreign aid workers would not be allowed to direct relief operations. The minister for economic development, Soe Tha, told diplomats late Sunday that government officials had visited most of the areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis, but that some were still out of reach. "There are few storm-hit areas where officials concerned do not visit. The supplies were dropped in flooded areas where the helicopters could not land," he said, according to the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper. He also thanked the United Nations and other countries for donating aid to cyclone victims, but repeated that local organisations -- rather than foreign aid workers -- would supervise the relief effort. "Aid from any nation (will be) accepted, and delivery of relief goods can be handled by local organisations," the minister said. Myanmar's government has already spent more than 20 billion kyats (US$18.1 million) on the aid effort and 21 relief camps have been set up for cyclone survivors, he said. International relief has been trickling into Myanmar, but aid groups say it falls far short of what is needed. Agencies have been wrestling with limits imposed by the military government, which has granted only a handful of visas to foreign aid workers, in addition to the difficulties of transporting supplies into the remote Irrawaddy Delta. A boat carrying Red Cross aid supplies sank Sunday in the disaster zone after hitting a submerged tree trunk. No one was injured, but some of the shipment was lost. - AFP/vm