(Recasts with new Kouchner quotes)

PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - France would prefer to distribute aid to cyclone victims in Myanmar directly but could work with the authorities if volunteers were allowed to supervise, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday.

Myanmar's military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including the United Nations, but it will not allow in foreign logistics teams needed to transport aid into the Irrawaddy delta, the area worst hit by Cyclone Nargis.

As many as 100,000 people are feared to have died in the cyclone eight days ago. The U.N. humanitarian agency said in a new assessment that between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive in the aftermath of the storm.

France is loading a naval ship moored in India, the Mistral, with 1,500 tonnes of rice and medical supplies. Kouchner said he hoped the Mistral would arrive in Myanmar by Thursday and would receive permission to distribute aid.

Asked on France Inter radio whether he would consider handing over the supplies to Myanmar authorities, Kouchner said: "That's not our intention, unless the distribution were supervised by a few volunteers.

"I have the feeling, though it's an extremely tenuous feeling, that the Burmese authorities are moving towards that kind of solution," he said.

Kouchner appeared to have softened his stance since an interview published on Saturday in which he said it was "out of the question for us to provide aid directly to the junta, even if it accepts it."

Kouchner said he hoped the aid would be distributed by the Mistral's crew, perhaps in cooperation with Britain. He mentioned the possibility of using helicopters from Thailand, Singapore or other countries in the region.

A foreign ministry source said earlier France did not intend to send the Mistral into Myanmar's territorial waters and start distributing aid without permission from the junta.

French charity Medecins du Monde said in a statement it had received permission to distribute its own aid to Myanmar. It said it had received four visas for foreign volunteers.

Medecins du Monde said one team of disaster management specialists had arrived in Yangon while a plane carrying 22 tonnes of supplies and a logistics expert was on its way.

France has suggested invoking a little-used "responsibility to protect" concept to deliver aid to Myanmar without government approval.

But its bid to have the U.N. Security Council adopt its idea was rebuffed on Wednesday by China, Vietnam, South Africa and Russia.

Kouchner said France would keep trying to persuade other Security Council members to back the plan because it would bring shame on the international community if aid did not reach the victims of Cyclone Nargis. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Keith Weir)

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