Yangon, May 16: The United Nations said on Friday that severe restrictions by Burma’s military junta have left aid agencies largely in the dark about the extent of survivors’ suffering two weeks after a killer cyclone left up to 2.5 million people destitute. Mr John Holmes, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, will go to Burma on Sunday to try to convince junta leaders to grant more access for UN relief workers and massively scale up aid efforts, said Ms Amanda Pitt, a UN spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand.

Officials of various UN agencies called a news conference in Bangkok to give an update on their relief operations. The most basic data was missing, from the number of orphans to the extent of diseases and the number of refugee camps. They also couldn’t say whether all survivors are in camps, on the move or still living in destroyed villages in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, an area the size of Austria. Cyclone Nargis also pounded Yangon, Burma’s main city.

"The risk increases with each passing day," Ms Pitt said, referring to the vulnerability of survivors to outbreaks of disease and other problems. Even the death toll has not been confirmed.

"Everyone is still using a range of figures because we don’t have data yet. Access is making that difficult. We simply don’t have the information, and I can’t say when we will have it," said Mr Steve Marshall, a UN official who just came out of Burma. The government says at least 43,318 people were killed and nearly 28,000 went missing when the May 2-3 cyclone turned the low-lying delta into a quagmire of shattered villages and squalid refugee camps ringed by fetid waters. The Red Cross fears the toll may be as high as 128,000; the UN estimates more than 100,000 died.

In the absence of a clear picture, the UN estimates some 1.5 million to 2.5 million survivors are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care. Aid groups have reached only 270,000 so far. The WHO said the first cases of cholera were recorded but could not provide any details. However, the WHO’s Thailand chief, Ms Maureen Birmingham, said cholera typically occurs in the delta this time of the year.

The junta insists Burma nationals and government agencies, including the military, can handle relief operations, particularly aid distribution. "We still have obstacles to relief workers getting to the delta region, which doesn’t help," Ms Pitt said. "We are concerned about the effects on the people. It is clear, from what everyone is saying, the aid effort is far from over."

The United Nations says the regime has issued 40 visas to its staffers and another 46 to nongovernment agencies but has confined the personnel to the immediate Yangon area. Mr Marshall, the UN official, laid out the hurdles that aid agencies face. He said the junta has set up checkpoints on the two main roads to the delta to keep foreigners out. Even local staff have to negotiate with the military to gain access to the camps.