Aid workers were racing to deliver food and water to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta region, which was submerged by floodwater, leaving scenes of utter devastation and desperate homeless survivors running low on food and water.
Witnesses described rice fields littered with corpses and there were fears the official toll could rise still further after jumping by 7,000 on Tuesday.
The US President, Mr George W. Bush, urged Myanmar’s reclusive military rulers to let international help in, saying he was prepared to send navy ships to help the recovery.
But Myanmar’s junta insisted foreign aid experts would have to negotiate with the government to be allowed into the isolated nation.
The government also said it would proceed this weekend with a constitutional referendum as part of its slow-moving “road map” to democracy, except in the areas hardest hit by the disaster.
In its first news conference since tropical cyclone Nargis barrelled into the Irrawaddy river delta early Saturday, the government said a 12-foot (3.5-metre) tidal wave killed many people.
State television said 21,793 people were killed and 40,695 were missing in Irrawaddy division, while 671 were killed and 359 people were missing in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. Most of the town of Bogalay had also been washed away.