Cyclone beggars line roads of Myanmar delta

KUNGYANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - The rows of beggars on either side of the road stretched for miles, twin columns of human misery left by the winds and waves of Cyclone Nargis.

Without clothes or shoes, the thousands of men, women and children made destitute by the cyclone could only stand in the mud and rain of the latest tropical downpour, their hands clasped together in supplication at the occasional passing aid vehicle.

Any car that did stop was mobbed by children, their grimy hands reaching through a window in search of bits of bread or a t-shirt.

The desperate entreaties expose the fragility of the claims by Myanmar's military government to be on top of the distribution of emergency relief in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta, where up to 2.5 million people are now clinging to survival.

They also make all the more questionable the reclusive junta's refusal to admit large-scale foreign aid operations and the workers to run them.

That refusal is motivated by fear the operations might threaten the generals' grip on power in a country that has known only military rule for the last 46 years, critics say.

Aid volunteers were shocked by the roadside scenes, which suggest conditions in the delta are deteriorating rapidly with what little rice and food that could be salvaged from the ruins of inundated villages now running out.

"The situation has worsened in just two days. There weren't this many desperate people when we were last here," one relief volunteer said.

In the storm-struck town of Kunyangon, around 100 (60 miles) southwest of the former capital, Yangon, the situation was little better, even though the former Burma's military rulers have started distributing small amounts of emergency food there.