May 5, 2008 Myanmar cyclone toll could top 10,000 Play video

(NECN/ABC) - The death toll from Tropical Cyclone Nargis has hit 4,000 in Myanmar, and the country's foreign minister says it could rise to more than 10,000.

Diplomats tell the Associated Press that Foreign Minister Nyan Win told them of the new figure in a meeting earlier today.

The cyclone hit Myanmar, also known as Burma, with winds of up to 120 miles per hour on Saturday. The storm has also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

Myanmar's ruling junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, appealed for aid on Monday. But the U.S. State Department said Myanmar's government had not granted permission for a Disaster Assistance Response Team into the country.

Laura Blank, spokeswoman for World Vision, said two assessment teams have been sent to the hardest hit areas to determine the most urgent needs.

"This is probably the most devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia since the tsunami," Blank said, referring to the 2004 disaster that killed around 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations. "There are a lot of important needs, but the most important is clean water."

Myanmar's government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.