Foreign diplomats are to get a tour of Burma's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta as government figures on the human toll nearly double.

Burmese state television said Friday that almost 78,000 people have died and almost 56,000 others are missing since the May 2-3 cyclone turned the delta into a quagmire of shattered villages and squalid camps, the Associated Press reported.

The country's secretive military regime previously said 43,318 were dead and nearly 28,000 missing. The Red Cross fears the death toll may be as high as 128,000; the United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 died.

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.

Tour will take place Saturday

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 chargé 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 UN said restrictions imposed by the regime have left aid agencies largely in the dark about the the situation 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.

With files from the Associated Press

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