New Delhi – The massive earthquake in China will not divert relief efforts from Burma, which still needs massive international support, aid agencies said Tuesday.

The 7.8-Richter scale quake that struck Sichuan province in western China on Monday killed more than 10,000 people and the death toll is rising.

"International aid agencies will not turn from Burma to China," said U Aye Win, spokesman for UN agencies in Burma.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cross Society (IFRC) has assessment teams and staff working in China with the China Red Cross. Each country has its own IFRC team, and is not affected by disasters in other countries, he said.

"Last night, we released US $235,000 dollars to assist the preliminary effort [in China]," Cochrane said. "We also have a regional delegation sitting in Beijing who will provide international support and coordination."

IFRC, meanwhile, is continuing its relief shipments to Burma. "So far, we've sent at least 10 flights to Burma but at the end of this week we expect to have at least 17 flights, if not more, landing in Rangoon," he said.

The includes shelter supplies, mosquito nets, water purification tablets, spades to dig latrines, and family packs – clothes, cooking utensils and soap.

All aid agencies face the same challenge of getting aid quickly to the most affected areas because road and bridges were damaged from the cyclone.

An aid convoy form Rangoon airport to the delta takes two days, Aye Win said. Only small trucks of 6 tons can be used to take supplies to the delta because the roads are too poor to handle larger vehicles.

Currently, the UN has been using only roads and waterways to deliver aid, but the Government has used helicopters.

Aid is beginning to trickle through to the country. In the past two days, US planes have been able to unload supplies in Rangoon, which was also badly damaged by the storm winds.

More shipments are on the way. The supplies, including wood, buckets, nails, blankets and plastic tarpaulin – items to help provide shelter needs – and thousands of bottles of clean water were handed to the military junta to distribute.  

There are also shipments from China, Japan, India, Singapore, Thailand and Russia. Two planes from Moscow have landed humanitarian and medical supplies, including tents, blankets, generators, disinfectants, bandages and food. Most of this aid is being handed directly to the Burmese authorities.

The European aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has also delivered a planeload of relief goods, which includes treatments for diarrheic diseases and malaria, Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food, plastic sheeting, water containers, water pumps and an eight-person Zodiac boat. Three more MSF cargo planes are on their way to Rangoon with further supplies.

The UN has also used food stocks, equipment and medical supplies that had been already been stored in the country. But less than 20 percent of the food has been delivered to the delta, warned the UN's World Food Programme.

The issue, however, is not simply food and supplies.

"What is needed is the logistical expertise the UN and other international aid agencies can offer," said Marcus Prior, a senior WFP official. "At present we have less than 10 percent of the logistical staff we need to run an operation the size that is needed currently in Rangoon."

The Burmese junta is deeply suspicious of the outside world and has refused to let in foreign experts who specialise in getting aid to disaster victims.

The Thai military authorities, who have good contact with their Burmese counterparts, have been negotiating behind the scenes and are confident the UN personnel will be cleared to enter Burma in the coming few days – but aid officials remain pessimistic in private.

Even when some UN agency staff have been granted official permission to travel to the delta they have been turned back at checkpoints near the worst-affected areas.

The regime has also been taking credit for the work of other countries. Food packages from foreign governments have been commandeered by the soldiers and had labels stuck on them saying they were being presented by particular generals. This has angered the Thai government.

Local community groups who have tried to deliver food to poor people in the outlying areas of Rangoon have been forcibly stopped and their bags of rice confiscated.