More aid heading for Burma

More British aid is being transported to Burma amid concerns the country's military government is continuing to block relief efforts.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UK would "stop at nothing" in trying to pressure the regime to help its people but ruled out using military force.

He added: "The important thing to recognise is that the best way to get aid to the people of Burma is to make sure that we can work with the government of Burma to get it through."

Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown accused the most senior members of Burma's ruling junta of turning a "deaf ear" to the plight of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen.

The United Nations has warned disease, hunger and thirst could cause a "second catastrophe" on a greater scale than the storm itself.

Lord Malloch-Brown, who is in Burma's neighbour Thailand for talks on the crisis, said the junta was only willing to take help "on its own terms, without the international support to distribute it".

Another two UK flights containing more emergency shelters and 14 flat-bottomed boats are due to arrive in Burma's largest city Rangoon.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said £6 million of British aid had already reached at least 350,000 Burmese people in need food, water and shelter.

The junta, which insists on taking control of distribution, has allowed the UN and some other agencies to hand out the supplies directly but has prevented foreign aid workers from entering cyclone-hit areas.

The Burmese government has put the death toll at 43,318, with almost 28,000 missing.

But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated the death toll was between 68,833 and 127,990 and the UN has said more than 100,000 may have died.

DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said with more heavy rain forecast to hit the Irrawaddy delta over the coming days, the situation could worsen.

The DEC said 17 Red Cross aid flights were due to land with 130 tonnes of aid, including 2,000 mosquito nets, 2,450 tarpaulins and almost 15,000 jerrycans.

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