Gafilo may return to the island within 48 hours, meteorological officials said late Monday.

Two people died near the city of Mahajanga in the northwest, state radio news editor Eddy Adriamanoro told AFP, citing correspondents in the affected region.

"They were buried when their house collapsed," he said, adding that five fishermen drowned at sea near Maroantsetra, in the northeast.

Broken phone lines compounded an already poor communications system in limiting information about the crisis reaching the capital to a trickle.

Rescue workers flew from Antananarivo for an initial assessment mission on Monday.

President Marc Ravalomanana spoke by telephone with President Jacques Chirac of France, the former colonial power and still the Madagascar's largest trading partner, to discuss humanitarian aid promised by his country.

"In the absence of definitive assessment reports, we can only surmise that Gafilo left significant damage in its wake," Foreign Minister Marcel Ranjeva said at a meeting with foreign diplomats, donors and other international organisations based in the island.

"Faced with this situation, and contrary to the norm, we are appealing to you to show solidarity... even as the cyclone is still on the island and damage assessment has not been finished," he said.

"We believe there will be between 55,000 and 100,000 homeless, and that figure includes those who have not yet recovered from Elita," another storm which hit northern Madagascar last month, said Interior Minister General Soja (Note Eds: no first name).

Elita killed 29 people, injured 100 and left 44,000 homeless in the same region that Gafilo swept through on Sunday, according to the National Rescue Council.

"In addition to the usual needs -- tents, medicine, basic commodities -- it is proving necessary to ask for transport facilities, with air transport taking priority," said Soja.

He said authorities were unable to confirm the reports on national radio of seven people dead.

"We sent two planes this afternoon to the (northeast) towns of Sambava and Antalaha. I cannot confirm the deaths announced on the radio. Another plane will fly over the town of Maroantsetra as it has apparently been badly hit."

Tropical cyclone Galifo hit Madagascar on Sunday, blasting powerful winds across the north of the Indian Ocean island.

As the storm swept across the north, the town of Antalaha was hit by winds blowing at 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, with gusts as high as 180 kilometers per hour. A representative of the humanitarian organisation Care International said Antalaha was "95 percent destroyed."

"Only very strong houses are still standing, and all the vanilla plants have been destroyed," he said.

But an AFP correspondent said Sambava appeared to suffered only minor damage.

On Monday at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT), Gafilo was stationery in the Mozambique Channel, about 120 kilometers (70 miles) off the western town of Maintirano, the weather service said.

"We are now certain that within 24 hours the cyclone will not touch land again," the head of the meteorological service, Alain Razafimahazo, said late Monday. "After that we don't know if it will touch the island again. The 48-hour forecast is uncertain."

TERRA.WIRE