ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar urgently needs diesel fuel to run the rice-tilling machines that are replacing water buffalo killed by Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta, a senior U.N. official said Friday.
The call by U.N. Undersecretary-General Noeleen Heyzer, head of the world body's headquarters for Asia, came as Myanmar's state-controlled press said that aid from the United States could not be trusted.

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to help Myanmar's cyclone victims, but the ruling military junta has been reluctant to accept foreign relief experts in large numbers and restricted their access to the hard-hit delta.

The U.N. estimates more than 1 million survivors, mostly in the delta, still need help more than five weeks after the cyclone struck. The government's official death toll is above 78,000 and an additional 56,000 people are missing.

Heyzer called for Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbors, foreign aid donors and traditional oil suppliers to assist the country by supplying it with 1 million gallons of diesel fuel.

Myanmar's agriculture minister, Maj. Gen. Htay Oo, told Heyzer earlier this week that the fuel is needed to operate some 5,000 mechanical tillers donated by Thailand, China and other countries. Rice fields are planted in June and July.

"The window of opportunity is very short, and the need is of the utmost urgency," Heyzer was quoted saying. "The planting season in the delta is June to July, after which it will be too late, with disastrous consequences for food security in Myanmar and the region."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an assessment this week that the area affected by the cyclone "normally accounts for roughly 60 percent of (Myanmar's) rice production."

"The outlook for the 2008/09 rice crop is very uncertain, as the planting window will close in late July. Little to no actual progress has been made to restore or rehabilitate damaged lands and infrastructure, while farmers are yet to be supplied with sufficient food, viable seed, tools, livestock or replacement mechanical tillers and fuel," it said.

Myanmar's ruling generals have rejected most offers of help from the United States, particularly the use of Navy helicopters and landing craft to ferry relief supplies to isolated villages in the Irrawaddy delta.

In a clear reference to the U.S. on Thursday, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the junta, said that "the goodwill of a big Western nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine."

Myanmar turned down humanitarian aid from U.S., British and French warships, which sailed to the waters off the Southeast Asian nation after the cyclone hit May 2-3.

The newspaper said aid from nations that impose economic sanctions on Myanmar and push the U.N. Security Council to take actions against it "comes with strings attached."

The United States is one of several Western nations that impose economic and political sanctions on the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

New Light of Myanmar has implied in the past that Washington is in league with Myanmar's pro-democracy movement to undermine the military government.