Protesters displayed a banner calling Myanmar's junta chief a "murderer" as he joined a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, a week after a huge earthquake killed thousands, leaving desperate survivors pleading for food and shelter.

More than 3,000 people are confirmed dead after the 7.7-magnitude quake, and the United Nations estimates that up to three million may have been affected in some way -- many left without shelter after their homes were destroyed.

Many nations have sent aid and rescue teams, but on the ground in some of the worst-hit areas there is little sign of Myanmar's ruling military helping survivors.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will hold talks with leaders from Bay of Bengal littoral nations at a plush Bangkok hotel on Friday.

The decision to invite him has drawn criticism, and outside the venue protesters hung a banner from a bridge reading: "We do not welcome murderer Min Aung Hlaing."

In Sagaing, the Myanmar city close to the epicentre of last week's quake and where an estimated 80 percent of buildings have been damaged, AFP journalists saw desperate scenes as hundreds of exhausted, hungry........

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