UN officials call Myanmar after cyclone a 'major disaster'

International aid began trickling into the Southeast Asian country, but much of the Irrawaddy delta, where most of the cyclone's 22,000 victims perished, remains cut off from the world.

"Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid. He predicted the casualty figure could rise "dramatically" beyond the latest figure given by Myanmar officials Tuesday.

Aid workers were able to start distributing essential relief supplies in the region, including water purification tablets, mosquito nets, plastic sheeting and basic medical supplies. But heavily flooded areas are accessible only by boat, he said.

"Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water. ... It's a huge, huge problem just to get these goods out," he said. This is "a major, major disaster we're dealing with."

With as many as 1 million left homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit over the weekend, the international community was struggling to deliver aid in the military-ruled country, which normally seeks to shut out foreign officials and restricts their access inside the country.

State television on Wednesday quoted Yangon official Gen. Tha Aye as reassuring people that the situation was "returning to normal" in certain areas of Karen state that were hit by the cyclone. He was shown thanking volunteers and visiting the village of Naungbo, outside Yangon, where locals were cutting apart downed trees and brush to clear the roads.

But nearby in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, cyclone victims faced new challenges as markets doubled the price of rice, charcoal and bottled water. Electricity was restored to a small portion of the city's 6.5 million residents, but most, who rely on electric wells, had no water.

At a morning market in the Yangon suburb of Kyimyindaing, a fish monger shouted to shoppers: "Come, come the fish is very fresh."

But an angry woman snapped back: "Even if the fish is fresh, I have no water to cook it!"