BANGKOK - THE United Nations has warned of a second wave of deaths among cyclone victims in Myanmar as a top British official slammed the government response to the disaster as one of the worst in recent memory.
Critical supplies are slowly making their way to survivors, but not nearly enough for the up to 2.5 million people who the UN says were severely affected by the storm.
The grim UN forecast came as heavy rain drenched the devastated Irrawaddy delta, disrupting efforts to reach those in urgent need of food, water and shelter.
'I cannot recall a relief operation where at least the international response has been subjected to such delays. We're two weeks into it, we don't even have a decent assessment of the numbers affected,' said Mr Mark Malloch-
Brown, British Minister of State at the Foreign Office, after meeting Thai officials.
'This is dangerously slow. And I would say that unlike the two very recent big disasters - the tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake - potentially it has a much greater risk of a second health crisis,' he said.
'We are way behind the curve compared to any other international disaster in recent memory.'
Myanmar's government had earlier issued a revised casualty toll saying 43,318 were known dead and 27,838 missing.
But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its estimate put the number of dead at between 68,833 and 127,990. The numbers were based on estimates from 22 different organisations, including the Myanmar Red Cross Society.
UN officials have said there could be more than 100,000 dead.
The junta has so far refused to accept help from foreign aid experts, insisting that Myanmar could handle the disaster on its own, but critics say the government is woefully lacking in helicopters, trucks and boats as well as planning expertise needed to distribute aid.
Ms Amanda Pitt, a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian arm, said that while a limited number of people had received some aid, it did not necessarily mean their lives had been put back together.
'If half a million people have been reached with one bag of rice, a banana and water, that's not the same as a proper response,' she said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday the UN would organise an emergency summit on the disaster, and that it would be held in Asia.
He provided no more details about the summit but on Wednesday he disclosed that he had urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to organise such a gathering.
