They said people in the hardest-hit parts of the Irrawaddy Delta were relocated by boats and trucks to camps, where it was unclear if they had enough food and water after the storm that left 66,000 dead or missing.

Around the main city of Yangon, people seeking shelter at Buddhist monasteries said they had been ordered to leave but given no other accommodation.

Myanmar's military government has kept a tight lid on monasteries since Buddhist monks spearheaded anti-government protests last year, posing the biggest challenge to military rule in nearly two decades.

Security forces fired on and beat the protesters, leaving at least 31 dead and prompting most of Yangon's monks to flee the country's main city.

Many monasteries in Yangon have since been empty, but in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, monks have taken the lead in providing shelter for people left homeless by the storm.

About 80,000 people had sought sanctuary in schools and temples in the Irrawaddy Delta town of Labutta, which was left in ruins after the cyclone struck nearly two weeks ago, they said.

Now, only about 20,000 remain in their care at 50 monasteries in Labutta, after the military moved them to camps set up in the towns of Myaungmya and Pathein, which escaped the storm with little damage, the monks said.

"People were moved in boats and trucks to nearby towns," one of them told AFP in the main city of Yangon, where monks have come to seek donations for the disaster relief effort.

"We don't know whether they can get enough food and water there."

The United Nations estimates that 550,000 people are now living in temporary settlements, where accounts from evacuees say there is not enough food, water or shelter for everyone.

The drive to move people to emergency shelters could be part of efforts to improve sanitation for survivors, which state media have said was a priority for the secretive military government.

But Myanmar has in the past been accused by human rights groups of forcibly relocating villages to make way for military operations or construction projects.

"The authorities do not have enough supplies (to feed and shelter victims). Monks still have to take care of these victims," said a 30-year-old monk from Labutta, who travelled to Yangon in search of donations.

"They want to rely on Buddhist monks," he said.

"I want to say the authorities should do more for storm victims. I am not saying that all the authorities neglect the people. Some were really helpful," he said.

Another monk said the monasteries in Labutta were struggling to cope with the enormous need for help, and would prefer to see an international relief effort to aid cyclone victims.

"We want international help to reach them directly, without going through the authorities," he said.

Some survivors have said they left the government camps in the delta and travelled to Yangon in search of help from monasteries in the country's biggest city.

"There are many people waiting for food and water in the camps. It was very difficult for me to survive there," said Ko Win, a 45-year-old who found shelter at a Yangon pagoda.

"How can you live at these camps?" he said. "But people also don't want to go back to their villages because they are afraid of another disaster."

In Yangon, the military government has launched a campaign to clear out monasteries, according to evacuees who sought shelter on the grounds of one temple.

"Where do they want us to go?" said 30-year-old Gangamani, one of thousands of cyclone victims ordered to leave monasteries. "We have no house any more, and it is raining."

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