A U.S. envoy says Burma's secretive military government has agreed to take foreign diplomats on a tour of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta, but the United Nations complains that aid agencies remain largely in the dark about the extent of the Burmese people's suffering.

Meanwhile, the CBC's Stephen Puddicombe reports that the regime has repeated its public warnings against hoarding.

On Burmese national radio Friday morning, the government again urged citizens to inform on anyone they see hoarding or selling relief supplies. It has threatened unspecified legal sanctions for those who do so.

Puddicombe, reporting from neighbouring Thailand, noted that Burma's military has itself come under suspicion of diverting relief supplies, including high-protein biscuits intended for starving people. Many aid groups say they have heard such reports but have no proof of theft, he said.

In Rangoon, U.S. diplomat Shari Villarosa told the Associated Press that the Foreign Ministry will take a group of diplomats into the delta on Saturday. Villarosa is the charg? d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in the Burmese capital.

It was not clear how much access the diplomats will have outside the controlled tour, but this would be their first look at the damage and the government's much-criticized relief delivery effort, two weeks after the deadly May 3 cyclone.

Also Friday, the United Nations again complained of severe restrictions imposed on outside experts trying to help people in Burma, also known as Myanmar, AP reported.

John Holmes, 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 Amanda Pitt, a UN spokeswoman in Bangkok.

Information scarce, UN says

Officials of various UN agencies called a news conference in Bangkok to give an update on their relief operations. The most basic information was missing, they said, 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.

"The risk increases with each passing day," Pitt said, referring to the vulnerability of survivors to outbreaks of disease and other problems.

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.

With files from the Associated Press

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