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U.S. Marine spokesman said Wednesday that Myanmar's military junta has begun to let aid trickle into the country devastated by a cyclone that struck the region May 2.

A second tropical cyclone is not forecast, officials said.

At least 68,000 and as many as 128,000 people have died in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis which hit May 2, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Wednesday.

The numbers are much higher than official casualty figures released by Myanmar's government, the organizations noted in a report.

The government earlier said 22,000 people had been killed.

In addition, weather forecasts predict within six days, the Irawaddy Delta -- the part of the country hardest-hit by the cyclone -- could receive another 12 cm (4.7 inches) of rain, the report said.

The Myanmar government, which had for more than a week refused to let outside aid into the country, authorized entry of five more U.S. flights with supplies, the Marine spokesman said.

The flights will deliver 46 pallets loaded with bottled water, plastic sheeting and hygiene kits as well as crackers and powdered milk.

Three additional U.S. flights have already gone to Myanmar -- one on Monday and two on Tuesday. They carried food, mosquito netting and tarpaulins. Meanwhile, Pentagon officials said the USS Essex, USS Juneau and USS Harpers Ferry are in international waters off the coast of the country also known as Burma, with more than 14,000 containers of fresh water and other aid, awaiting orders to deliver by air or landing craft.

Aid agencies estimate that about 2 million people survived Cyclone Nargis, many of whom are still homeless. Aid agencies have been able to reach only 270,000 of them, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

But Thailand's prime minister said Wednesday that the junta believes it is in control of the relief operations, AP reported.

Samak Sundaravej, back from a visit to Yangon, said the military had guaranteed him that there were no disease outbreaks or starvation among the survivors.

He said Myanmar did not want any foreign aid workers because they "have their own team to cope with the situation." Video Watch aid being unloaded in Yangon »

The United Nations estimates that between 63,000 and 100,000 people died as a result of the cyclone, but the junta has put the figure at less than 30,000.

"The government has a responsibility to assist their people in the event of a natural disaster," Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs, told AP. Video Watch Myanmar troops disperse aid to cyclone victims »

"We are here to do what we can and facilitate their efforts and scale up their response. It is clearly inadequate, and we do not want to see a second wave of death as a result of that not being scaled up."

Yangon residents discovered news of a second cyclone on foreign broadcasts and on the Internet, as it was not broadcast by Myanmar's state-controlled media, AP reported.

"I prayed to the Lord Buddha, 'Please save us from another cyclone. Not just me, but all of Myanmar,' " Min Min, whose house was destroyed in Cyclone Nargis, told AP. The rickshaw driver, his wife and their three children now live on their wrecked premises under plastic sheets.

"Another cyclone will be a disaster because our relief center is already overcrowded. I am very worried," Tun Zaw, 68, another Yangon resident who is living in a government relief center, told AP.

However, a tropical cyclone expert at City University of Hong Kong told AP the new storm would probably not be as severe as Nargis because it was already close to land, and cyclones need to be over sea to gain full strength.

"There will be a lot of rain but the winds will not be as strong," Professor Johnny Chan said.

CNN's weather forecast also predicted that the effects would be far less severe.

However, any more significant rainfall could cause further hindrance to aid distribution, which has already been slowed by the ruling junta's refusal to allow most foreign workers to do much more than drop supplies at Yangon airport.

The government has, however, agreed to allow the first foreign aid group into the Irrawaddy delta, according to AP. Video Watch an aid official discuss Myanmar's response to the devastation »

A Thai medical team is scheduled to go into a region previously off-limits to foreigners Friday, Dr. Thawat Sutharacha of neighboring Thailand's Public Health Ministry told AP.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar government has authorized five more U.S. aid flights to land in Yangon, a U.S. Marine spokesman said.

Three planes left an airbase in Thailand by about noon local time, and two more were scheduled to take off soon, said Lt. Col. Doug Powell of the U.S. Marine Corps.

The five flights will deliver 98 tons of supplies including 46 pallets loaded with bottled water, plastic sheeting and hygiene kits as well as crackers and powdered milk, Powell said.

Three additional U.S. military flights have gone into Myanmar already this week: one Monday and two Tuesday. They carried food, mosquito netting and plastic tarpaulins. Video Watch what Myanmar's children are going through »

The USS Essex, USS Juneau and USS Harpers Ferry were in international waters off the coast of Myanmar laden with more than 14,000 containers of fresh water and other aid, awaiting orders to deliver by air or landing craft, Pentagon officials said.

Though this new development was encouraging, much more needs to be done, U.S. Admiral Timothy Keating said Wednesday.

"It's not enough. We are capable of doing more," he said. "We have delivered 170,000 pounds of relief supplies, water, food, shelter and, interestingly, some mosquito netting. So the spigot isn't wide open, but it's open a little bit."

Keating, who was part of the negotiations with the junta to bring in aid, said he hoped Myanmar's leaders would allow much more aid into the country.

"It appears they're allowing limited numbers but increasing numbers," Keating said. "So we're very, very guardedly optimistic we will see approval for more flights."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked the United Nations secretary-general to convene an emergency summit on aid to Myanmar.

Brown told the House of Commons on Wednesday that he had also asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to go to the country himself.

Brown said a British plane just arrived in Myanmar with shelter supplies for 45,000 people. He said three other planeloads of aid would arrive "very soon."

"There has been an improvement [in aid getting to victims], but it is not good enough," Brown said. "The regime is still preventing aid getting to the rest of the country."

Brown said it was important for Asian countries to jointly pressure leaders in Myanmar -- also called by its previous name, Burma -- by those who refuse to recognize the military junta.

"The key thing at the moment is to pressure the regime by all countries in Asia uniting with all of us to make sure that aid gets to the people of Burma as quickly as possible," he said. "The Burmese regime must now let into the country all aid workers and all aid immediately."
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Brown said he asked for an emergency summit because "other countries" blocked a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss aid to Myanmar. When asked to name those other countries, Brown refused.

"We're applying a great deal of pressure," he said. "I think it would be in our interest to apply that pressure rather than name names at the moment.