UN chief to send envoy to Burma

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says he plans to send a senior official to urge Burma's military leaders to open up to foreign aid.

Mr Ban said he wanted UN aid chief John Holmes to accompany a food aid delivery to the cyclone-hit nation.

He also proposed a conference of nations prepared to pledge assistance.

UN figures now suggest that as many as 2.5 million people have been severely affected by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma 12 days ago.

Latest Burmese official figures put the number of dead at almost 38,500, with 27,838 more missing, but the Red Cross warned as many as 128,000 could be dead.

A slow trickle of aid is now getting to survivors but aid agencies say it is not nearly enough.

They say far more people, boats and trucks are needed to get the supplies to the communities that need them most.

Mr Ban said he "regretted" the UN had spent more time arranging rather than delivering help, amid claims of stonewalling by the junta.

Under pressure from Britain to call an emergency summit, the UN chief convened talks with donors and the Association of South-East Asian Nations in New York on Wednesday.

"Even though the [Burmese] government has shown some sense of flexibility, at this time it's far, far too short," he said.

Thai leader Samak Sundaravej flew to Rangoon for talks with Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, but said the junta was adamant it needed no outside help.

"He insisted that his country [could] tackle the problem by themselves," Mr Samak said in Bangkok after his day trip to Burma.

Fresh storm fears eased on Wednesday as forecasters said a tropical depression off Burma's coast had weakened and was unlikely to brew into a cyclone.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii downgraded the cyclone risk to "poor".

Meanwhile, the UN accused the generals of beefing up security on checkpoints to keep out foreigners.

Mr Holmes, the UN's head of humanitarian assistance, said that although more than 100 international UN aid workers were now in Burma, they were not being allowed into the worst affected area, the Irrawaddy Delta, to distribute aid.

EU envoy Louis Michel is heading for Burma for a three-day visit, but he said his chances of making any headway with the junta were "slight".

Residents have told the BBC's Burmese service how private citizens have been trying to distribute water and supplies from their own cars - but soldiers have been confiscating the goods.

A BBC correspondent said one devastated village - with one in four of its 400 homes left standing - had received just one bag of rice from the government.

RudieCantFail said:
They're sending John Holmes?

Hasn't Burma been fucked hard enough already?