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The United Nations said on Wednesday (May 14) up to 2.5 million people might have been affected by the Myanmar cyclone and proposed a high-level donors conference as the Myanmar junta again limited foreign aid. The European Union's top aid official said the military government's restrictions on foreign aid workers and equipment were increasing the risk of starvation and disease. U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters between 1.6 and 2.5 million people were "severely affected" by Cyclone Nargis and urgently needed aid, up from a previous estimate of at least 1.5 million. The International Federation of Red Cross held a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday (May 15) to update journalists on the deteriorating conditions in Myanmar. "Young volunteers are working almost around the clock at the headquarters in Yangon. They are loading and unloading trucks of international aid and locally donated aid and that is going out very quickly to the affected areas. We've not heard any reports back from Myanmar Red Cross that they have hampered their distributions," said Joe Lowry, a IFRC official. IFRC also estimated on the basis of reports from 22 organisations working in Myanmar, that between 68,833 and 127,990 people had died. "The most pressing need is shelter. Once people are in some sort of safe shelter, where they can be based, where they can camp, where they can receive health services, that is the most important thing. And with the weather worsening, the water can be your best friend and worst enemy, and this stage it looks like it is the worst enemy," added Lowry. Though aid is pouring in international organisations and other countries, it is far from sufficient. Myanmar will need $243 million for rice seeds, fertilizers and the rehabilitation of paddy fields in the five cyclone-damaged areas that produce 65 percent of its rice, the Food and Agriculture Organization said on Wednesday. Thai Prime Minister Samak told reporters in Bangkok that Myanmar's leaders had insisted that teams of foreign experts, who have been refused entry, were not needed. Myanmar, formerly called Burma, was once the world's biggest rice exporting country but more than 40 years of military rule have left it impoverished.