Travel and visa obstacles on Tuesday hampered aid deliveries to the hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar now believed to be homeless after the devastating cyclone, officials said.

But a green light from Myanmar’s military rulers to accept aid has started the global relief effort rolling.

“This assistance is on its way,” said United Nations relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs, but she said U.N. workers planning to assess needs are still awaiting their visas to enter the country.

The death toll in the country, which is also known as Burma, was in the tens of thousands with many more still missing, state radio reported. As many as 1 million people may have been left homeless.

The European Union would be providing $3.1 million, according to a statement released by Slovenia, president of 27-nation bloc.

China is providing $1 million in aid, including relief materials worth $500,000, to help with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts, a spokesman said.

But the United States and France complained about Myanmar’s reluctance to accept direct aid.

President Bush called on Myanmar’s military junta to allow the United States to help with disaster assistance, saying the U.S. already has provided some assistance but wants to do more.

“We’re prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country,” he said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France minimized its aid to about $309,000. He said Myanmar officials are willing to accept aid but insist on distributing it themselves, which he said was “not a good way of doing things.”

“It’s not a lot but we don’t really trust the way the Burmese ministry would use the money,” said Kouchner, who is also the co-founder of French aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Kouchner said, however, that 25 percent of the EU donation was coming from France.

Anne-Francoise Moffroid, the EU desk officer dealing with the crisis, said it was difficult to know how many people will need aid. Affected areas are isolated and difficult to reach and infrastructure has been destroyed, she said.

“Many volunteers from the local Red Cross have died in the disaster,” she said. “I think it will be a major challenge to bring assistance to these areas.”

Simon Horner, spokesman for the EU humanitarian office, called it “a massive disaster,” particularly in the Irrawaddy delta.

“The reports that are coming back from some of our partner organizations ... is that there are some communities where the destruction is close to 100 percent,” Horner said.

The military government generally makes it difficult for aid workers to move around the country without permission, and obtaining visas to bring in more international staff also is an obstacle.

The U.N. emergency relief coordinator said that a number of organizations felt visas were “a concern” and that the United Nations was asking the government to ease the situation.

“Since we now have the green light for international aid to go there, I hope we will get the visas as soon as possible,” UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said.

The U.N., Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing shipments to the country.

“Our first shipment is arriving today,” said Eric Porterfield, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

He said the federation was working with the Myanmar Red Cross, which has been playing a leading role in the initial distribution of aid.

The national Red Cross staff and 18,000 volunteers are handing out plastic sheets, drinking water, insecticide-treated bed nets and clothes, Porterfield said.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the international community should focus on providing humanitarian aid to Myanmar instead of criticizing the ruling junta’s handling of the cyclone.

Some residents of Yangon, the former capital of 6.5 million, said they were angry the government failed to adequately warn them of the approaching storm and has so far done little to alleviate their plight.

The Norwegian government alone said it would give up to $1.96 million. Spain said it would donate $775,000 to the World Food Program, while Switzerland said it would send an initial $475,000 and the Swiss Red Cross said it would send $190,000.

Singapore said it will provide $200,000 for tents, ground sheets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, drinking water and emergency food. The Czech government allocated $154,000, while Denmark said it was giving $103,600.

Sweden offered logistic support and water cleaning systems to the U.N. operation.

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Associated Press Writer Paul Ames in Brussels, Belgium, and AP correspondents in bureaus around the world contributed to this report.