U.N. says up to 2.5 million affected in Myanmar cyclone

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - The United Nations estimated those affected by the Myanmar cyclone at up to 2.5 million on Wednesday and called an urgent meeting of big donors and Asian states as the Myanmar junta continued to limit foreign aid.

The European Union's top aid official said the military government's restrictions were increasing the risk of starvation and disease.

U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters that there were now between 1.6-2.5 million people who were "severely affected" by Cyclone Nargis and urgently needed aid, up from a previous estimate of at least 1.5 million people.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said after a two-hour meeting in Yangon, where he urged his counterpart Thein Sein to ease visa rules for relief workers, that he was told Myanmar could "tackle the problem by themselves."

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has expressed frustration over the response by Myanmar's reclusive leaders, met key donor states and Asian powers to discuss "what kind of concrete measures we can do from now on."

"Even though the Myanmarese government has shown some sense of flexibility, at this time it is far, far too short," he said. "The magnitude of this situation requires much more mobilization of resources and aid workers."

Among those invited were the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Bangladesh, Australia and Japan.

TRICKLE OF AID

Nearly two weeks after the cyclone swept through the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta rice bowl, killing tens of thousands of people, foreign aid still amounts to little more than a trickle.

Myanmar, formerly called Burma, was once the world's biggest rice exporting country but more than 40 years of military rule have left it impoverished. The military junta has repeatedly crushed pro-democracy movements and tightly restricts visits by foreigners.

Samak told reporters in Bangkok that Myanmar's leaders had insisted that teams of foreign experts, who have been refused entry, were not needed.

"They are confident of dealing with the problem by themselves. There are no outbreaks of diseases, no starvation, no famine. They don't need experts, but are willing to get aid supplies from every country," Samak said.

Louis Michel, the top European Union aid official, disagreed. "There is a risk of water pollution. There is a risk of starvation because the storages of rice have been destroyed," he told reporters in Bangkok.

"We want to convince the authorities of our good faith. We are there for humanitarian reasons," he said. He threw cold water on suggestions from some European countries that foreign countries move unilaterally to bring in aid.

Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, also rejected that idea. "We have absolutely no intention of forcefully providing relief supplies," he said in an interview with National Public Radio.