U.S. to keep sending aid to Myanmar: officials

By Susan Cornwell and Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States intends to send more emergency supplies to Myanmar, even though its military rulers have blocked the entry of American aid workers, officials said on Wednesday.

They also expressed concern that much of the international aid already delivered was not reaching cyclone victims.

"We are willing to continue in the short term this policy, because we do believe that there is a serious need and it's one that we believe we can help address," State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said no new U.S. aid flights would take off without receiving landing permission from Myanmar's military-run government.

"We have absolutely no intention of forcefully providing relief supplies," Keating told National Public Radio.

Nearly two weeks after Cyclone Nargis swept through the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta leaving up to 100,000 people dead or missing, foreign aid was still only a trickle.

A senior U.S. military official said there were signs supplies were stuck in Yangon.

"What we've been able to see is, from the flights that are coming in, that stuff is starting to stack up at the airfield," the official told reporters at the Pentagon, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said the United States had received reports that some 230 camps had been set up in Myanmar to house more than 230,000 people displaced by the cyclone.

"They're springing up all over the place," he said. "The problem they have is a lack of water and sanitary facilities."

REPORTS OF THEFT

Officials said they were aware of reports some relief supplies were being stolen or diverted by the army, but that the humanitarian needs were so great that they would keep making deliveries -- while continuing to urge that U.S. aid workers be granted visas.

"The needs are so immense, they are so large, that we are taking some risks in the hope that we can get the assistance through to the ones most in need," Henrietta Fore, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters at the State Department.

The United States military has made eight flights into Yangon with supplies such as potable water, blankets, plastic sheeting and mosquito nets. Fore said there would be more U.S. flights.

Keating told NPR there was "reason to believe that we'll be able to fly five more C-130s tomorrow (Thursday) and perhaps some rotary wings, helicopter sorties, as well."