If Myanmar continues to reject U.S. assistance, Washington would consider routing its help through other countries, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said.
A key reason the regime is dragging its feet on allowing in foreign aid, several Burmese living overseas said, may be a desire by the generals to wait until after a referendum on a revised constitution scheduled Saturday. The government has postponed the vote two weeks only in the areas hardest hit.
"They don't want foreigners to enter before May 10th," said Lway Cherry, an activist living in Thailand. "But without water, shelter, food or medicine, many more could die in the next two or three days."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Than Shwe, the general, to urge immediate access for aid workers and a postponement of the referendum so that the regime can concentrate on delivering supplies.
Experts said a debate might be raging in the inner circle over whether the greatest threat to the generals' power lies with foreign influence or their own citizens' anger.
"I suspect some are saying, 'It's all too dangerous, we should handle this ourselves,' " said Tim Huxley, the Singaporean-based director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia, "and others saying, 'The situation is so dire, we need all the help we can get.' "
Though foreign aid workers trying to help survivors would appear to be a minimal threat, the military, which has held power for 46 years, is worried that its people will suddenly have a reality check.
The regime has long been able to craft its own narrative, analysts said, which is now threatened. A case in point, they said, is the death toll, with the government insisting for some time that only 351 people had perished, only to raise the figure suddenly to 10,000, and a little later to 22,000.
"When they say 10,000, Burmese say the real figure must be 50,000," Zarni said. "It's just like during the bird flu epidemic when they told people there was no problem because sick birds from Thailand couldn't fly over the border's high mountains. It's a time warp."
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mark.magnier@latimes.com
Times staff writers Maggie Farley at the United Nations and Paul Richter and Julian E. Barnes in Washington contributed to this report.
