The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Yangon

Myanmar said Friday it was not ready to let in foreign aid workers, rejecting international pressure to allow experts into the isolated nation where disease and starvation are stalking cyclone survivors.

One week after the devastating storm killed tens of thousands, Myanmar's ruling generals-deeply suspicious of the outside world-said the country needed outside aid for those still alive, but would deliver it themselves.

The foreign ministry announcement came as a top UN official warned time was running out to move in disaster experts and supplies to prevent diseases that could claim even more victims. Instead, the ministry said some relief workers who arrived on an aid flight from Qatar on Wednesday had been deported.

"Currently Myanmar has prioritised receiving emergency relief provisions and is making strenuous efforts to transport those provisions without delay by its own labours to the affected areas," it said.

"As such, Myanmar is not ready to receive search and rescue teams as well as media teams from foreign countries." The military regime that rules this impoverished country, once known as Burma, has long been wary of any influences that could threaten the iron grip on power it has maintained for almost half a century.

Even with the country battered by tragedy, the generals insist they will hold a constitutional referendum on Saturday, brushing off criticism they are ignoring the plight of the homeless while devoting resources to the vote.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said the junta should delay the vote on a document her party says will merely enshrine military rule. "With this situation, it is not the appropriate time to hold the referendum," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.

The extent of the catastrophe unleashed by Cyclone Nargis has also put the regime under intense international pressure to postpone the vote and open up the country, where only a handful of outside aid groups are allowed to operate under strict controls.

The United Nations estimates more than one million people have been left homeless by the disaster and, as each hour passes without clean water and food, they are at ever greater risk of starvation and disease. "The situation is getting critical and there is only a small window of opportunity if we are to avert the spread of diseases that could multiply the already tragic number of casualties," said Noeleen Heyzer, the top UN official for the Asia-Pacific.

Rotting bodies of people and animals are piled up in many places across the remote southern Irrawaddy delta, where the storm's high winds and waves washed entire villages away. In many places, the stench of death is overwhelming. Houses have been demolished, roads and bridges are damaged and huge swathes of land are still underwater a week after the disaster hit.