Cyclone kills nearly 4,000, Myanmar accepts help

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - A devastating cyclone killed nearly 4,000 people and left thousands more missing in army-ruled Myanmar, state media said on Monday as the ruling generals gave a "careful green light" to offers of international aid.

The secretive military, which has ruled the former Burma for 46 years and has been shunned by Western governments after a violent crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests last September, conveyed the message at a meeting with U.N. officials in Yangon.

The death toll from Saturday's cyclone covered only two of the five declared disaster zones, where U.N. officials said hundreds of thousands of people were without shelter and drinking water.

"The confirmed number is 3,934 dead, 41 injured and 2,879 missing within the Yangon and Irrawaddy divisions," Myanmar TV reported three days after Cyclone Nargis, a storm with winds of 190 kph (120 mph), hit the Irrawaddy delta.

Earlier reports put the death toll at 351, but the number of casualties had been expected to rise as authorities reached hard-hit islands and villages in the delta, rice bowl for the impoverished Southeast Asian country of 53 million.

Government officials gave a "careful green light" to United Nations to send immediate emergency aid , a U.N. spokesman said.

"The U.N. will begin preparing assistance now to be delivered and transported to Myanmar as quickly as possible," Paul Risley of the World Food Programme told Reuters.