A leading Australian aid agency says the Burmese military regime has allowed its efforts to provide urgent relief following the catastrophic aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

CARE Australia, which has operated in parts of Burma for 14 years, has already begun providing plastic sheeting for emergency shelter, food, water and other essentials.

With the latest death toll reaching 22,000 dead, 41,000 missing and expected to continue rising from the weekend cyclone, many aid agencies are still awaiting travel visas to enter the reclusive nation.

The US and Australia have led international calls for the military junta to ease emergency entry restrictions.

CARE Australia spokesman Robert Yallop said that authorities had been cooperative.

“We’ve had full support from the authorities, working with the UN. The scale is quite enormous,” Mr Yallop told the Nine Network.

“Every indication that we have at the moment is that we’ve been receiving full cooperation from the government authorities in Myanmar Burma.

“The UN is basically organising most of that interaction with the government authorities, but we have certainly had no impediment to our activities to date.”

Australia has said it will put aside cool relations with its military junta to offer humanitarian aid to the millions affected by the cyclone in Burma.

Mr Yallop said CARE’s team in Burma had been shocked by the extent of the devastation, and called for Australians to donate money to the relief fund.

“The CARE Australia team’s were out yesterday in areas just on the outskirts of Yangon (Rangoon), along the river. They were shocked,” Mr Yallop said.

“What they found were that there were thousands of people who are now living in pagodas, in schools, who’ve lost their houses.

“We’re beginning to provide plastic sheeting for shelter, provide food, water and other immediate needs.

“But the scale of this is quite enormous and in the coming days the requirements are going to be much, much greater.

“There are a lot of things that need to be brought in.

“We will be bringing in materials and equipment from Thailand, but what we really need at the moment is the generous support of the Australian public so that we can simply get enough resources to provide assistance for this effort.”