STATE DEPARTMENT (AP) -- The State Department says members of a disaster assistance response team are standing by and could get to Myanmar "very, very quickly" when the government gives permission for them to enter the country.

Spokesman Sean McCormack says the United States is looking at ways to augment an initial emergency contribution of $250,000 to the United Nations and other international relief agencies.

State media in Myanmar are reporting more than 22,000 deaths because of the cyclone.

The U.S. Navy has three ships in the Gulf of Thailand, but a Pentagon spokesman says the U.S. military will not move the ships to Myanmar until assistance is authorized.

President Bush today pleaded with Myanmar's military junta to allow the U.S. to provide assistance, saying the country wants "to do a lot more."