Mad Generals still blocking aids: They just want money to buy guns from China?

The United Nations' World Food Program began doling out emergency rice in Yangon and the first batch of more than $10 million worth of foreign aid arrived from Thailand on Tuesday, but a lack of specialized equipment slowed distribution.

Despite the magnitude of the disaster -- the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh -- France said the ruling generals were still placing too many conditions on aid.

"The United Nations is asking the Burmese government to open its doors. The Burmese government replies: 'Give us money, we'll distribute it.' We can't accept that," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told parliament.

In New York, Rashid Khalikov, U.N. humanitarian affairs coordinator, appealed to Myanmar to waive visa requirements for U.N. aid workers trying to get into the country. "Unfortunately we cannot tell you how many people are in need of assistance," he said. "We just clearly understand that it will probably be in the hundreds of thousands."

Of the dead, only 671 were in the former capital, Yangon, and its outlying districts, state radio said. The rest were all in the vast swamplands of the delta, which was hit by 190 kmh (120 mph) winds and an enormous storm surge.

"More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself," Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told a news conference in the rubble-strewn city of 5 million, where food and water supplies are running low. "The wave was up to 12 feet high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," he said, giving the first detailed description of the weekend cyclone. "They did not have anywhere to flee."

Read full story from au.news.yahoo.com