U.S. now handing some cyclone aid off to private groups in Myanmar

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The United States is now being allowed to give some of the aid it is rushing into Myanmar to private groups, after concern that previous cyclone-relief supplies may have been siphoned off by Myanmar authorities.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday there have been questions about whether those supplies have reached victims of the cyclone that ravaged the southern part of the nation two weeks ago.

"We are doing our best to make sure that what is delivered in Rangoon (Yangon) makes it down to the effected areas to those who need it," he said at his midday briefing in Washington. "Given the current circumstances, you can't construct a perfect system for doing that."

–From CNN's Charley Keyes