More than 10,000 people were killed in a devastating cyclone that hit western Burma on Saturday, Foreign Minister Nyan Win has said on state TV.

He said his government was ready to accept international assistance. Aid shipments are now being prepared.

Thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis are lacking shelter, drinking water, power and communications, but in many regions help has not yet arrived.

Five regions in which 24 million people live have been declared disaster zones.

Expressing his sadness at the scale of the disaster, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that UN officials were meeting Burmese government representatives to discuss how to help.

If the toll is confirmed, Nargis is now the world's deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India killed 10,000 people.

Nargis hit the south-east Asian country on Saturday with wind speeds reaching 190km/h (120mph). It brought with it a sea surge that smashed through towns and villages.

Earlier on Monday, the death toll was being put at 351 but the foreign minister later went on TV to announce the figure of at least 10,000.

With information still coming in, he warned the toll could yet rise.

The towns of Bogalay and Laputta, in the region of Irrawaddy, are among those locations particularly badly hit, state media have reported.

None of the casualty figures have been independently confirmed.

Thousands of buildings have been flattened, power lines downed, trees uprooted, roads blocked and water supplies disrupted.

Many people have been left without drinking water and shelter

 

A Rangoon resident who spoke to relatives in Laputta said that 75% to 80% of the town had been destroyed.

Houses along the coast had been reduced to skeletal structures, 16 villages had been virtually wiped out and no help had reached Laputta, he said.

Pictures on state TV show security services working to clear roads but in Rangoon and elsewhere there are complaints that the response to the disaster has been weak.

 

Aid assessment

Prices of food, fuel and basic necessities have also risen dramatically.

The UN and international aid agencies are sending assessment teams to the worst-hit areas and shipments are being prepared.

Thailand has announced it is flying in a transport plane loaded with nine tonnes of food and medicines and India is sending two naval ships carrying food, tents, blankets, clothing and medicines.

The US, which released an immediate funding package of $250,000 (£127,000) to be channelled through the UN, said that Burmese authorities had refused permission for an American disaster assistance response team to enter.