(BRUSSELS) - The EU's aid chief Louis Michel is prepared to wait for days in Thailand in hope of getting into cyclone-hit Myanmar to urge its regime to let in a full-scale international relief effort, his spokesman said Tuesday.

"Discussions are ongoing," between the European Commission and the Myanmar authorities to try to obtain authorisation for the EU's humanitarian aid commissioner to enter Yangon, spokesman John Clancy told reporters in Brussels.

Michel was due to head for Bangkok later Tuesday at the end of an emergency meeting of EU development ministers to discuss the crisis in Myanmar.

He hopes to enter Myanmar from the Thai capital to "talk to the local authorities," Clancy said. "The important thing is Michel's desire not leave any stone unturned."

"He wants to explain the necessity to open immediately a humanitarian corridor, every hour counts," he added, stressing that "this mission is of a humanitarian nature, not a political one".

Asked how much time Michel was prepared to wait in Thailand for the green-light to enter Myanmar, the spokesman said it could be "a matter of days".

"We want to explain the importance that aid agencies be allowed to do their job in that country," he added.

The UN on Tuesday called for an emergency air or sea operation to channel disaster relief to Cyclone Nargis victims in order to avert a "second catastrophe".

However Myanmar's military rulers again rejected the growing international pressure to accept aid workers, insisting against all the evidence that they could handle the emergency cyclone relief effort alone.

The full extent of the death and destruction may not be known for months. The United Nations and United States have estimated the number of dead at around 100,000.

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