Govt.: Supplies, not foreigners, needed

YANGON, Myanmar, May 9 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military regime, responding to a U.N. appeal, says the country needs relief supplies not foreign aid workers.

A Foreign Ministry statement carried by the state media said strenuous efforts were being made to get supplies to cyclone-ravaged areas and that the country isn't ready for foreign workers, the BBC reported.

The ministry said it would welcome cash and emergency aid.

While some planes carrying relief supplies have arrived in the country, U.N. officials have expressed frustration over the limited access provided to aid workers by the military government even as the situation gets more desperate.

The death toll from the storm could top 100,000 and some aid agencies have said more people could die because help isn't reaching them.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked the Myanmarese junta to give priority to aid relief than the referendum set for Saturday on a new constitution seen by critics as a way to allow the junta to continue in power.

The Foreign Ministry said it had refused entry to a relief flight from Qatar as it had an aid team and a media crew on board, the BBC report said.