Myanmar pressed 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.

Thousands of children could die within weeks if food doesnot get to them soon, non-government aid organisation Save theChildren said.

The World Food Programme (WFP), leading the outsideemergency food effort, said it had managed to get rice andbeans to 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most inneed after the May 2 storm, which left at least 134,00 dead ormissing.

"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.

Save the Children said in a Sunday statement its researchhad found some "30,000 children under the age of five in thecyclone-affected Irrawaddy Delta were already acutelymalnourished before the cyclone hit" on May 2.

"Of those, Save the Children believes that several thousandare at risk of death in the next two to three weeks because ofa lack of food."

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's body count could still climbdramatically.

To try to offset such a prospect, a steady stream ofincreasingly important diplomats have been flying into theformer Burma to plead for more access for aid workers and mercyflights.

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 from the vessels until they get a green light from thegenerals.

U.N. chief humanitarian officer John Holmes was due inYangon on Sunday evening, to meet junta number four Thein Sein,who is prime minister and Myanmar military aid operationsleader.

Holmes was 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's 120 mph (190 kmh) winds and its 12-foot (3.5 metre)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," said Bernard Delpuech, head ofthe European Commission Humanitarian Office in Yangon.

Three days ago, men, women and children stood for milesalongside the road near the delta town of Kunyangon, begging inthe mud and rain for scraps of food or clothing from theoccasional 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 for thelast 46 years, to allow an influx of foreign aid workersappears to stem from fear that it might loosen its vice-likegrip 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.

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

Beyond the challenge of immediate relief for survivors,there could also be problems down the road from the storm.

Save the Children warned "long-term food security ... is atrisk because the cyclone has prevented many farmers sowing seedfor the monsoon harvest."

The group said it was trying to get seeds to farmers whosefields were no longer flooded.

(Writing by Ed Cropley and Jerry Norton; Editing by SanjeevMiglani)