The United States led calls for improved cooperation from Yangon and even weighed dropping food and aid into the worst affected parts of Myanmar. It did not rule out doing so even without approval from the country's military rulers.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the crisis with her Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, urging Beijing to use its sway with Myanmar's authorities to convince them to open up to international aid.

That would "really open up the spigot of international assistance to help with what is quite clearly a humanitarian disaster," said Rice's chief spokesman, Sean McCormack.

"We're shocked by the behavior of the (Myanmar) government," US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters. "It should be a no-brainer to accept the offer made by the international community, by states, by organizations, by international organizations."

Invoking the principle of the 'responsibility to protect' threatened populations, which was agreed by world powers at a 2005 summit, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner again called on Myanmar authorities to "lift all restrictions to the unfettered delivery of aid by all effective channels."

But Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers, who currently chairs the UN Security Council, noted the principle relates to a world response to "acts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity" rather than to a natural disaster.

Speaking as British envoy, he appealed to Yangon rulers to "take the necessary steps to allow humanitarian relief in."

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert again pressed for a briefing of the council by UN humanitarian chief John Holmes on the cyclone which may have left more than 100,000 people dead, according to a US diplomat in Yangon.

China's deputy UN ambassador Liu Zhenmin however warned against politicizing what is above all a natural disaster.

"We should avoid politicizing this issue," he told reporters, adding that it should be handled by competent UN agencies and not by the Security Council, which is tasked with handling threats to international peace and security.

Several other council members agreed.

"We think that there are better equipped forums to discuss the humanitarian dimension of the Myanmar situation," Indonesia's UN Ambassador Marty Natalegawa told reporters.

"The last thing we would want is to give a political spin to these technical realities on the ground," he added.

"We don't think it's appropriate for the council to deal with it, it's a humanitarian issue right now," said Panama's UN Ambassador Ricard Alberto Arias.

Sawers said members decided in the end that Holmes would not report to the council, but would instead brief UN member states in the UN Trusteeship Council in the context of his flash appeal for aid from donors Friday.

Holmes' predecessor as UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland of Norway, appealed to China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to use their considerable leverage on Yangon to coax it into allowing foreign aid.

"My strong sense is that the Security Council powers led by China, and the trading partners of Burma (Myanmar) led by India, need to do more to ensure the right of assistance of the Burmese population," said Egeland, now head of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

"The ball is in their court. They have to use their economic, political, social (leverage)," he told AFP from Oslo.

Earlier Thursday, Holmes said he was "disappointed" with Myanmar's cooperation so far. He said UN chief Ban Ki-moon was trying to talk to Myanmar's junta leader Than Shwe to urge him "strongly to facilitate access" for foreign relief workers.

And Ban urged the military regime to focus on mobilizing resources to cope with the cyclone disaster rather than on a constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday.

In Myanmar, more than one million homeless were battling to stave off disease and hunger Thursday, but the military government maintained tight limits on foreign assistance six days after a massive cyclone.

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