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The top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar says 100,000 may have died in the cyclone and that 95 per cent of buildings in the affected area are demolished.

Shari Villarosa heads the U.S. embassy in the country's largest city, Rangoon. She says food and water are running short in the Myanmar delta area inundated by the storm. She called the situation in that area "increasingly horrendous."

Ms. Villarosa told reporters Wednesday: "There is a very real risk of disease outbreaks as long as this continues."

Aid trickled into Myanmar on Wednesday for an estimated one million victims of Cyclone Nargis in military-ruled Myanmar, with the death toll rising to nearly 23,000 and expected to go higher.

With the inundated Irrawaddy delta virtually cut off and frustration growing among aid agencies and governments to deliver supplies, France suggested invoking a UN "responsibility to protect" clause without waiting for military approval.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters on Wednesday the idea was being discussed at the United Nations.

State Myanmar radio and TV, the main official sources for casualties and damage, reported an updated death toll of 22,980 with 42,119 missing and 1,383 injured in Asia's most devastating cyclone since a 1991 storm in Bangladesh that killed 143,000.

Richard Horsey of the United Nations Office of the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters in Bangkok the death toll was expected to rise.

"With all those dead mostly floating in the water at this point you can get some idea of the conditions facing the teams on the ground. It's a major logistical challenge," Mr. Horsey said.

Experts say Myanmar's ruling military must overcome their distrust of the outside world and open up to a full-scale international relief operation. Mr. Horsey said the government "recognizes this is an unprecedented emergency" that needed international involvement.

The United Nations recognized in 2005 the concept of "responsibility to protect" civilians when their governments could or would not do it, even if this meant intervention that violated national sovereignty.

European Parliament president Hans-Geert Poettering urged the junta to give access to international aid and to postpone a controversial constitutional referendum on Saturday.

Thailand, China, India and Indonesia were flying in relief supplies and the U.S. President and Australian Prime Minister appealed to the Myanmar government to accept their assistance.

Even relief workers of the United Nations, which has a presence in the diplomatically isolated Southeast Asian country, were awaiting visas five days after Cyclone Nargis struck with 190 km winds.

Political analysts and critics of 46 years of military rule say the cyclone may have long-term implications for the junta, which is even more feared and resented since last September's bloody crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests.

Water purification tablets, plastic sheeting, basic medical kits, bed nets and food were priorities, UN officials said.

Most of the victims were swept away by a wall of water from the cyclone that smashed into coastal towns and villages in the rice-growing delta southwest of the biggest city of Yangon.

"We estimate upwards of 1 million people currently in need of shelter and life-saving assistance," Mr. Horsey said, adding 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of the delta were under water.

At Yangon airport, a Reuters photographer on a Thai military plane said two Indian and one Chinese transport plane with tents and construction materials had also landed.

Debris and fallen trees at the airport had been cleared, but paddy fields around the city were still flooded.

Indonesia, hard-hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, said it was giving $1 million in cash and sending two planes to Myanmar on Thursday with blankets, baby food, medicine and other goods.

"What you need is to think outside the box, and all the rules, all the conventions, go out the door, and what we need to do is save people, save lives...," Indonesian presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said in an interview on CNN.

The military junta's own aid operation has moved up a gear with some helicopter drops into the region, but land convoys were nowhere to be seen, a Reuters witness in the delta said.

One doctor in the town of Labutta told Australian radio that people clung to trees in a desperate fight for survival. Entire villages were virtually destroyed, reports from the delta said.

"All the victims were brought to the town and I asked them, 'How many of you survived?' and they said about 200, 300," Aye Kyu told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. "Then I asked them, 'How many people in your area?' They said about 5,000."

In one town alone, Bogalay, at least 10,000 people were killed, according to a town-by-town list of casualties and damage announced by the reclusive military government.

With disease, hunger and thirst threatening survivors, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd begged the junta to allow in large-scale humanitarian relief.

"Forget politics. Forget the military dictatorship. Let's just get aid and assistance through to people who are suffering and dying as we speak, through a lack of support on the ground," Mr. Rudd told reporters in Perth.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday offered to provide the use of U.S. Navy ships and aircraft carriers in humanitarian aid missions as well as $3 million to meet urgent needs.

He made that offer at a signing ceremony awarding the junta's strongest political opponent — detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — the Congressional Gold Medal, the top U.S. civilian honour.

Youtube video from Myanmar television