TEHRAN, June 10 (Reuters) - Flooding caused by Cyclone Gonu which swept southern Iran last week killed 23 people, a senior official was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Officials have said the hurricane damaged villages in the provinces of Hormuzgan, Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan. Roads, bridges and houses were also reported damaged, as well as a dam.

"1,850 villages in Sistan-Baluchestan, Kerman and Hormuzgan provinces are having difficulties receiving aid," Hossein Bagheri, head of the national disaster organisation, told the web site of Iran's state broadcaster IRIB.

"In some places the height of the water reached two metres." IRIB quoted Bagheri as saying 23 people had died.

Iranian media on Saturday said 12 people were killed.

Another Iranian official said a dam 40 km (25 miles) north of the town of Nikshahr had been destroyed.

Cyclone Gonu killed 49 people in Oman.

Gonu had raised fears of a disruption to exports from the Middle East, origin of more than a quarter of the world's oil. Oil prices rose to around $71 a barrel on Thursday.

Officials in Iran and Oman have said conditions were gradually returning to normal.

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