Another cyclone threatens Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar, May 14 (UPI) -- Barely 12 days after Cyclone Nargis laid waste vast regions of Myanmar, the poor Asian country faced the threat of another storm churning in the Bay of Bengal.

The U.N. weather center Wednesday identified a tropical depression threatening to develop into a cyclone in the next 24 hours, even as the world body struggled to bring in desperately needed supplies to more than 1.5 million cyclone survivors in the isolated military-controlled country.

Britain's Daily Telegraph quoted Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman for the U.N. humanitarian relief effort, as saying in Bangkok that a second cyclone would severely hamper what relief supplies that are getting in. She, however, couldn't say if or when a second cyclone might make a landfall in Myanmar.

The new storm reportedly was aimed at the same Irrawaddy delta region ravaged by Nargis.

The junta has come under bitter criticism from the international community for its slow response to the calamity. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused the military regime of "malign neglect," the Telegraph report said.

Separately, The Guardian reported Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej traveled to Myanmar to meet with the military leaders after several failed attempts by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to contact them.