Aid programs ready to help Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar, May 6 (UPI) -- The Myanmar government says more people were killed by a tidal wave sweeping away entire villages than by the monster cyclone triggering the wall of water.

The weekend cyclone's destruction forced the military junta ruling Myanmar, formerly Burma, to reluctantly accept international aid and foreign humanitarian workers to supply food, water and shelter, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Maung Maung Swe, the country's social services minister, said many deaths in the Irrawaddy delta were triggered by the water surge.

"More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself," he said during a news conference. "The wave was up to 12 feet high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages. They did not have anywhere to flee."

International relief teams are ready to help Myanmar, but officials said they haven't been issued visas.

Mike Green, a former National Security Council expert on Asia, told the Times it was unclear whether the cyclone would thaw relations between the United States and the isolationist Myanmar military leadership.

"This will be a real test case," said Green, a senior adviser at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Accepting U.S. assistance "would be significant."