Burma issued with cyclone warning

Meteorologists have warned that another cyclone could hit Burma's capital city, Rangoon, within 24 hours.

The South East Asian country, also known as Myanmar, is still struggling to recover from Cyclone Nargis, which roared through its rice bowl on May 3, killing up to 100,000 people and leaving 1.5 million people destitute.

"The potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is upgraded to good with the only limitation being temporary land interaction," said a report by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC).

The JTWC website said the depression is currently 30 nautical miles west-southwest of Rangoon.

Desperation among the cyclone survivors mounted as the international aid flow remained a trickle and police barred foreign aid workers from worst-hit areas.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron urged the Burmese regime to let more aid in to help those hit by the recent cyclone.

Mr Brown told MPs at there had been an "improvement" in the number of relief planes being allowed in but it was still "not good enough".

He said he was asking the UN to organise an emergency summit as Mr Cameron pressed him to set a deadline after which aid would be enforced.

Mr Brown said the situation touched "the whole conscience of the world" and added: "A natural disaster in Burma, by the actions of a despicable regime, has been turned into a man-made catastrophe as a result of their actions."

Tens of thousands of people throughout the devas region are crammed into monasteries, schools and other buildings after arriving in towns that were on the breadline before the cyclone hit.

Lacking food, water and sanitation, they face the threat of killer diseases such as cholera and in some parts are waiting in vain for help to arrive.

The United Nations and Western powers are continuing to pile pressure on the military regime to speed up its slow and disorganised response to the disaster by suggesting that helpless victims could have been robbed of food and other urgent supplies.

The reports were unconfirmed, but the relief effort, which has been complicated by heavy rains, is only delivering one tenth of the supplies needed in the devastated delta region.

"It's just awful, people are in just desperate need, begging as vehicles go past," Gordon Bacon, an emergency coordinator for International Rescue Committee said.

The international community has flown in tonnes of medicine, food and shelter materials, but getting it to low-lying delta area has been complicated by poor equipment, bad weather and government intransigence.

Burma's reclusive junta has made it very clear it does not want outsiders distributing aid.

Foreign experts in sanitation, nutrition and medicine have either been prevented from entering the country or are restricted to Rangoon. Armed police have sent back foreigners who attempt to pass through checkpoints surrounding the former capital.

"It's such an immense area of devastation and so many people need help that I'm sure if these people could get in and be coordinated properly it would assist the effort dramatically," said Mr Bacon. "There is frustration all around."

The international community has warned of an even greater tragedy if the aid effort is not ratcheted up.

In a statement after emergency talks on Burma in Brussels, EU development ministers called on Rangoon "to offer free and unfettered access to international humanitarian experts, including the expeditious delivery of visa and travel permits."

The EU ministers stopped short of endorsing a French call to deliver supplies if necessary without the junta's permission.

France's junior minister for human rights said it had the backing of Britain and Germany to call on the UN Security Council for aid to be taken into Burma without the government's green light if necessary.

"We have called for the 'responsibility to protect' to be applied in the case of Burma," Rama Yade said.

British officials said London would welcome discussion of the 'responsibility to protect,' a 2005 UN resolution conceived to assist victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but not natural disasters.

But the official did not consider the proposal realistic given Russian and Chinese objections.

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