Philippines readies for mass burials as survivors beg

Almost 200 corpses were lined up almost a week after the typhoon smashed through central Philippines

Scores of decaying bodies lay in bags outside Tacloban's ruined city hall today, ready for trucking by overwhelmed Philippine authorities to mass graves, as destitute typhoon survivors pleaded for help of any kind.

Almost 200 corpses — many of them unidentified -- were lined up side by side outside the government building almost a week after one of the most powerful typhoons ever to make landfall smashed through the central Philippines, killing thousands.

"There are still so many cadavers in so many areas. It's scary," Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez said, adding that retrieval teams were struggling to cope.

"There would be a request from one community to collect five or 10 bodies and when we get there, there are 40," Romualdez told AFP, claiming that aid agencies' response to the increasingly desperate crisis had been too slow.

Six days after Super Typhoon Haiyan unleashed its fury, President Barack Obama urged Americans to dig deep in donations to their former Asian colony. US officials said relief channels were slowly opening up as an aircraft carrier leads a small armada of warships steaming towards the Philippines.

But on the ground, aid is still not getting through to the hungry and thirsty battling to survive the aftermath.

Sick or injured people lie helplessly among the ruins of buildings, while those with the energy try to leave a place that resembles hell.

"The situation is dismal," conceded UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos, who visited Tacloban yesterday.

"Those who have been able to leave have done so. Many more are trying. People are extremely desperate for help," she told reporters in Manila.

"We need to get assistance to them now. They are already saying it has taken too long to arrive. Ensuring a faster delivery is our... Immediate priority.