Myanmar will accept foreign aid but not foreign aid workers, the foreign ministry said on Friday, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar that arrived in Yangon on an aid flight was turned back.

"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment," said a foreign ministry statement carried in the official Myanma Ahlin newspaper.

"But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources," the statement said.

The Qatar plane was one of 12 international relief flights that landed in the former capital on Thursday, it said.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Friday he had canceled a planned trip to Myanmar this weekend after the junta's announcement that it would not welcome foreign aid workers, just hours after he said he would go.

Frustration is mounting over Myanmar's generally feeble response to one of its worst disasters in memory and particularly the delays in giving visas to aid workers and landing rights for relief flights.

Western aid experts in Bangkok will have to wait at least four more days to get into Myanmar to help cyclone victims because the Myanmar embassy in the Thai capital took a local holiday on Friday.

The official death toll still stands at nearly 23,000, with 42,119 people still missing although experts fear the death toll could be 100,000. With saltwater ruining wells, grain stores and rice fields, the relief task ahead will be enormous.

The United Nations estimates at least 1.5 million people out of a population of 53 million are "severely affected" - needing food and shelter.

On Friday, Myanmar impouned two UN food aid shipments at Yangon airport, prompting World Food Progam (WFP) to halt its aid flights.

"We're going to have to shut down our very small airlift operation until we get guarantees from the authorities," a WFP regional director Tony Banbury told CNN.

Chinese aid relief arrives

A special aircraft carrying about $500,000 worth of relief materials, China's second batch of aid for Myanmar, arrived at the Yangon International Airport on Friday morning.

The same special Chinese aircraft had earlier brought 60 tons of relief supplies as the first $500,000 batch to Yangon on Wednesday.

More relief materials from China will arrive at Yangon airport on Saturday.

In addition to the initial $1 million, China has pledged another $ 4.3 million worth of aid to help Myanmar's rehabilitation efforts.

Agencies-Xinhua

(China Daily 05/10/2008 page11)