A top US military commander says American Navy ships off Burma’s coast will leave the area after failing to get the junta’s permission to help with cyclone relief efforts.

The United Nations and aid groups say children in cyclone-devastated Burma may be forced to attend damaged schools when classes resume tomorrow, while victims in camps may be more vulnerable to disease because of inadequate aid.

Burma’s cyclone victims are being forced from refugee camps and dumped near their wrecked homes without aid or supplies, the UN said today.

Burma’s isolationist regime has approved all pending visas for United Nations relief workers to enter the country, the world body said today, nearly a month after a cyclone left more than two million people in need of aid.

Burma’s military government today renewed the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

International aid workers today finally began entering Burma’s cyclone-devastated delta after being blocked for more than three weeks by the country’s military junta.

Burma’s military regime, already under fire for blocking international aid to cyclone victims, is expected to decide today whether to extend the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi or set her free.

Foreign aid workers were today poised to reach the more than a million Burma cyclone victims still waiting for their first assistance, providing the military government gives them permission.

Donor nations say they are ready to provide Burma with more than $100m (€63m) to help it recover from Cyclone Nargis, but are warning its ruling junta they will not fully open their wallets until they are given access to the hardest-hit areas.

A 50-nation conference is preparing to pledge funds for survivors of Burma’s cyclone after the country’s xenophobic junta promised to open their doors to critically needed foreign assistance.

Foreign aid agencies urged Burma's junta today urgently to clarify rules for operating in the country's cyclone-devastated areas, after the regime promised to open its doors to the international community.

More than 45 countries and regional organisations have signed up to attend a donors conference in Burma tomorrow to mobilise funds for immediate humanitarian assistance for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the Burmese junta's decision to allow "all aid workers" into the country to help cyclone survivors, after weeks of refusing access to foreign relief experts.

Burma’s ruling junta has agreed to allow “all aid workers” into the country to help cyclone survivors, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said today.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon met the leader of Burma’s ruling junta today, hoping to persuade him into allowing full international access to 2.5 million cyclone survivors.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon flew over the cyclone-ravaged landscape of Burma’s heartland today, touching down to learn from officials’ briefings and heart-to-heart chats with storm victims of the misery that he hopes more foreign assistance can alleviate.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Burma to try to persuade the country’s ruling generals to let in a torrent of foreign assistance for cyclone victims rather than the current trickle.

Burma’s state media says that the country will not accept relief supplies for cyclone victims carried by US warships and military helicopters.

A World Bank top official said the bank will not give financial aid or a loan to cyclone-hit Burma because of outstanding debts.

A deal may be in the pipeline to allow a US flotilla – and French and British ships in the same situation – to finally join in the relief effort after the devastating Cyclone Nargis.

Burma’s military regime has invited representatives of several countries to visit the cyclone-hit delta in a bid to deflect criticism that it is mismanaging relief operations, diplomats said today.

The leader of Burma’s increasingly isolated ruling junta made his first public visit to a relief camp today as state media lashed out at swelling international criticism that it was closing the door on aid to millions in desperate need following Cyclone Nargis.

A senior UN envoy headed for Burma today to plead with its military junta to accept more international aid for cyclone survivors, amid mounting fears of starvation, especially among children.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is sending UN humanitarian chief John Holmes to Burma after he failed to sway the leaders of the cyclone-hit country to act more swiftly in helping victims.

The official death toll from Burma's killer cyclone nearly doubled to 78,000 today as aid workers shackled by the country's uncooperative military regime struggled to get even the most basic data about the needs of up to 2.5 million desperate survivors.

Burma's military leaders were accused today of deliberately keeping the full plight of suffering cyclone survivors from aid agencies.

Lack of clean water will be the biggest killer in cyclone-hit Burma in the coming days, the international Red Cross warned today.

Relief supplies pushed into Burma by the international community remain far below the needs of up to 2.5 million victims of the devastating cyclone, the United Nations said.

Ordinary Burmese are increasingly stepping in to help the country’s cyclone victims in the face of the chaotic efforts of their government.

International aid agencies mustered everything from anti-snake venom kits to plastic roofing today, warning that a second wave of deaths would follow the Burma cyclone disaster unless the military regime let in more aid quickly.

A second storm was heading towards Burma’s devastated Irrawaddy delta region tonight.

The United Nations said today another cyclone was forming near Burma, less than two weeks after it was devastated by a killer storm.

The UN today said only a tiny portion of international relief is reaching Burma’s cyclone victims, amid reports the country’s military regime is hoarding high-quality foreign aid for itself while people make do with rotten food.

The horror of the Burmese cyclone was brought home today by a harrowing account of the disaster seen through the eyes of a teenager.

Organising financial help for Burma will remain difficult until the West is given the “full picture” of the scale of the crisis, the European Commission warned today.

Burma’s corrupt military regime was today accused of siphoning off high-quality aid for cyclone victims and replacing it with rotten food.

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon criticised Burma’s military junta for its “unacceptably slow response” to helping cyclone victims.

The UN pleaded with Burma’s secretive government today to open its doors to foreign experts who could help up to two million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation.

Rice prices in Burma’s largest city Rangoon have surged 50% since the deadly cyclone that flooded entire growing areas.

The United States was launching its first relief airlift to cyclone-hit Burma today after prolonged negotiations with the country’s military rulers.

As the cyclone raged around him, Ko Zaw Min clung to a tree with one arm and clutched his newborn son with the other. He watched as the boy died in his arm, and then saw his older son drop from the tree into the churning, salty waters below.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says a cargo ship carrying relief supplies for more than 1,000 cyclone victims in Burma has sunk.

The lives of up to 1.5 million Burmese cyclone victims are in danger from diseases if clean water and sanitation are not provided soon, Oxfam warned today.

Aid is reaching Burma’s cyclone victims in greater amounts with many roads being cleared, but there is no sign foreign experts will be allowed in.