US pressing to deliver aid to Myanmar

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The U.S. military was putting people and airplanes into position Wednesday in nearby Thailand. But Myanmar's government had not accepted the U.S. offer to send aid, U.S. defense and diplomatic officials said. The top American diplomat in Yangon, Charge d'Affaires Shari Villarosa, said the country's military junta is paranoid about the United States but is not blocking American aid in retaliation for past criticism.

"It's a very paranoid regime," she told reporters in a conference call. She said lower reaches of the Myanmar regime appear to recognize the magnitude of the problem, but the senior leadership is isolated and has not yet announced a decision on how to handle outside aid, large amounts of which are moving into the area.

President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, called the cyclone a "humanitarian disaster of enormous proportions."

Notably, the White House's language about the junta appears to have grown less confrontational as the scope of the calamity grows.

On Monday, first lady Laura Bush described the junta as "very inept" on several fronts and accused leaders of failing to give citizens some lifesaving warnings about the storm. President Bush said Tuesday that his message to military rulers was: "Let the United States come help you."

Hadley put it this way on Wednesday: "The junta should please open its doors."

He said he would keep his comments limited because he did not want to politicize the matter.

"The green light has not been given for people to go in," Hadley said. "And it is simply going to compound the humanitarian disaster."

The White House said Tuesday the U.S. will send more than $3 million to help victims of the cyclone in Myanmar, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.

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