U.S. Marines: Aid begins to trickle into Myanmar

PATTAYA, Thailand (CNN) -- Myanmar's military junta has begun to let aid trickle into the country devastated by a cyclone that struck the region May 2, a U.S. Marine spokesman said Wednesday.

The news came along with word that there was no second tropical cyclone forecast for the region, only more rain, officials said.

The Irawaddy Delta -- the part of the country hardest-hit by the cyclone -- still could receive another 12 cm (4.7 inches) of rain within the next six days, forecasts said.

Meanwhile, at least 68,000 and as many as 128,000 people have died in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Wednesday.

The numbers are much higher than official casualty figures released by Myanmar's government, a report from the organizations said.

The government earlier said 22,000 people had been killed.

For more than a wekk the Myanmar government had refused to let outside aid into the country. But Wednesday it authorized entry of five U.S. flights with supplies, the Marine spokesman said.

Three planes left an airbase in Thailand by about noon local time, and two more were scheduled to take off, said Lt. Col. Doug Powell of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, back from a visit to Yangon, said the military junta had guaranteed him that there were no disease outbreaks or starvation among the survivors.

He said Myanmar did not want any foreign aid workers because they "have their own team to cope with the situation." Watch aid being unloaded in Yangon »

The five flights from the U.S. will deliver 98 tons of supplies including 46 pallets loaded with bottled water, plastic sheeting and hygiene kits as well as crackers and powdered milk, Powell said.

Three more U.S. flights have already gone to Myanmar -- one on Monday and two on Tuesday. They carried food, mosquito netting and tarpaulins. Watch what Myanmar's children are going through »

Pentagon officials said the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship; USS Juneau, an amphibious transport dock; and USS Harpers Ferry, a cargo dock landing ship are in international waters off the coast, with more than 14,000 containers of fresh water and other aid, awaiting orders to deliver by air or landing craft.

Aid agencies estimate 2 million people survived Cyclone Nargis, many of whom are still homeless. Aid agencies have been able to reach only 270,000 of them, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

"The government has a responsibility to assist their people in the event of a natural disaster," Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs, told AP. Watch Myanmar troops disperse aid to cyclone victims »

"We are here to do what we can and facilitate their efforts and scale up their response. It is clearly inadequate, and we do not want to see a second wave of death as a result of that not being scaled up."

If the rain is particularly harsh, it could cause further hindrance to aid distribution. Watch an aid official discuss Myanmar's response to the devastation »

A Thai medical team is scheduled to go into a region previously off-limits to foreigners Friday, Dr. Thawat Sutharacha of neighboring Thailand's Public Health Ministry told AP.

Though these new developments are encouraging, much more needs to be done, U.S. Admiral Timothy Keating said Wednesday.

"It's not enough. We are capable of doing more," he said. "We have delivered 170,000 pounds of relief supplies, water, food, shelter and, interestingly, some mosquito netting. So the spigot isn't wide open, but it's open a little bit."

Keating, who was part of the negotiations with the junta to bring in aid, said he hoped Myanmar's leaders would allow much more aid into the country.

"It appears they're allowing limited numbers but increasing numbers," Keating said. "So we're very, very guardedly optimistic we will see approval for more flights."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked the United Nations secretary-general to convene an emergency summit on aid to Myanmar.

Brown told the House of Commons on Wednesday that he had also asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to go to the country himself.

Brown said a British plane just arrived in Myanmar with shelter supplies for 45,000 people. He said three other planeloads of aid would arrive "very soon."

"There has been an improvement [in aid getting to victims], but it is not good enough," Brown said. "The regime is still preventing aid getting to the rest of the country."

Brown said it was important for Asian countries to jointly pressure leaders in Myanmar -- also called by its previous name, Burma, by those who refuse to recognize the military junta.

"The key thing at the moment is to pressure the regime by all countries in Asia uniting with all of us to make sure that aid gets to the people of Burma as quickly as possible," he said. "The Burmese regime must now let into the country all aid workers and all aid immediately."

Brown said he asked for an emergency summit because "other countries" blocked a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss aid to Myanmar. When asked to name those other countries, Brown refused.

"We're applying a great deal of pressure," he said. "I think it would be in our interest to apply that pressure rather than name names at the moment."

CNN's Andy Saputra and Mike Mount contributed to this report.

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All About Myanmar • Natural Disasters • Gordon Brown • Ban Ki-moon