Kuala Lumpur - The Red Cross has received the green light from Myanmar's government to dispatch its first aid flight, planned for Thursday, to the cyclone-devastated country, a spokesman said.

The plane leaving from Malaysia would carry 6 to 7 tons of reconstruction supplies for several thousand people affected by Cyclone Nargis, which struck at the weekend,, said John Sparrow, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The Red Cross was loading plastic sheeting, nails, hammers and twine for the repair of damaged houses onto the plane, he said in Kuala Lumpur, adding that no Red Cross personnel would be on board the chartered flight.

Sparrow, who is waiting for a visa from Myanmar authorities himself, said Myanmar employees of the Red Cross would meet the plane at Yangon's airport and take the supplies to the aid agency's own warehouses.

"We will make sure the materials do not fall into the wrong hands," he said.

Exile groups have reported that the Myanmar military has unloaded aid shipments from Thailand and China and absorbed them into their own stocks.

The military junta has also urged the World Food Programme to hand over shipments in Yangon to soldiers, Bettina Luescher, spokeswoman for the UN agency, said in television interviews.

"We told them we don't work that way," she said.

Sparrow said the Red Cross supplies would be distributed as quickly as possible through the 17,000 local Red Cross volunteers. The aid that the Red Cross already had in Myanmar has already been distributed, he said.

He called Thursday's flight a test to see whether a planned Red Cross air lift would function.

The Red Cross' warehouses in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur are full, he said, adding, "It is only a question of transport."

The massive international disaster-relief effort for Myanmar was being hindered by red tape and delays imposed by the military government, including the issuing of visas, officials said Thursday.

Nargis struck central Myanmar late May 2 and into Saturday. According to the government, nearly 23,000 people were killed and as many as 42,000 were missing with most of the victims in the Irrawaddy Delta, bbut Shari Villarosa, the US charge d'affaires in Yangon, and dissident groups on the Thai border said the death toll could reach 100,000. (dpa)