Myanmar under pressure to accept aid

YANGON (Reuters) - Aid was trickling in on Sunday to anestimated 2.5 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargisin Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta as more foreign envoys tried toget the junta to admit large-scale international relief.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which is leading theoutside emergency food effort, said it had managed to get riceand beans to 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are mostin need after the May 2 storm, which has left at least 134,00dead or missing.

"It's not enough. There are a very large number of peoplewho are yet to receive any kind of assistance and that's what'skeeping our teams working round the clock," WFP spokesmanMarcus Prior said in Bangkok.

In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceededNargis in terms of human cost -- a 1970 storm that killed500,000 people in neighbouring Bangladesh, and another thatkilled 143,000 in 1991, also in Bangladesh.

With the reclusive military government still refusing toopen its doors to a large-scale tsunami-style aid operation,disaster experts say Nargis' body count could still climbdramatically.

To try to offset such a prospect, a steady stream ofincreasingly important -- and desperate -- diplomats have beenflying in to the former Burma to plead for more access for aidworkers and flights.

Pressure is also mounting at the United Nations, whereFrance has accused the junta of being on the verge of a crimeagainst humanity. On Saturday, Prime Minister Gordon Browncondemned the generals' sluggish response as "inhuman".

The French and U.S. navies have ships equipped with aid andhelicopters hovering off Myanmar's waters in the Bay of Bengal,but Paris and Washington say they will not start any aidflights until they get the green light from the generals.

Britain's Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, was in Yangonon Sunday but it was not know whom he had been able to meet.

The United Nations' chief humanitarian officer, JohnHolmes, is expected to arrive in the evening and meet juntanumber four Thein Sein, the Prime Minister and leader of theMyanmar military's own aid operations.

Holmes is also expected to hand over a third letter fromhis boss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to junta supremo ThanShwe, who has refused to talk to Ban on the phone since thecyclone and its massive sea-surge slammed into the delta.

DELTA TOURS

Confident they are handling the crisis properly, thegenerals took diplomats on a tour on Saturday of the delta,where people are now clinging to survival in an area the sizeof Austria.

They appeared to have worked hard to keep the diplomatsaway from the destitute.

"The purpose was to show the situation was under control.Where we were they didn't hide anything, but of course theyselected the places we visited," Bernard Delpuech, head of theEuropean Commission Humanitarian Office in Yangon, said.

Three days ago, columns of men, women and childrenstretched for miles alongside the road near the delta town ofKunyangon, begging in the mud and rain for scraps of food orclothing from the occasional passing aid vehicle.

Thousands of other refugees are crammed into monasteriesand schools, fed and watered by local volunteers and privatedonors who have sent in clothes, biscuits, dried noodles andrice.

Buddhist monks play a major role.

"We have distributed over 100 tonnes of rice and more than3,000 tin roofing sheets so far. We are trying to distributemore," said the Venerable Nyanissara, a 73-year-old patriarchrunning a makeshift relief centre south of Yangon.

The reluctance of the military, which has ruled uncheckedfor the last 46 years, to allow an influx of foreign aidworkers appears to stem from fear that it might loosen itsvice-like grip on power.

In a rare acknowledgement of criticism, state televisionsaid on Saturday outside media reports suggesting thegovernment was not doing enough were inaccurate.

Tens of millions of dollars had been spent, the army, navyand air force had delivered extensive aid and 122 medical teamshad been dispatched to the delta to help victims and monitorfor infectious diseases such as cholera, Myanmar televisionsaid.

Some cholera cases had been found, foreign health officialshave said, but the number of cases is normal for this time ofyear in a country where the disease is endemic.

The junta's official toll from the disaster stands at77,738 dead and 55,917 missing.

(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)