(BRUSSELS) - EU nations on Tuesday called on Myanmar to allow "free and unfettered" access to humanitarian aid, while rejecting a French call for UN intervention to push help into the country.

But EU development ministers, at an emergency meeting in Brussels, also sought to avoid jeopardising a visit to Myanmar by EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, who said the military junta had granted him a visa.

Following the talks Michel stressed that his mission to Yangon was "purely humanitarian".

"There is no political dimension to it whatsoever... there can be no doubt about the nature of my mission," he told reporters.

In a statement afterwards, the 27 development ministers called "on the authorities in Myanmar to offer free and unfettered access to international humanitarian experts, including the expeditious delivery of visa and travel permits."

While welcoming the "albeit limited improvements on the ground" they also called on the junta "to take urgent action to facilitate the flow of aid to people in desperate need, who should benefit in full from the relief offered by the international community."

However the statement contained no mention of a call by French Secretary of State for Human Rights, Rama Yade, for the EU to invoke the UN's "responsibility to protect" the untold thousands hit by the cyclone in Myanmar.

The French minister said during Tuesday's talks that "we are calling for the application of the responsibility to protect in the case of Myanmar," which would allow the UN to impose aid on the country regardless of the wishes of the regime.

She added, on the margins of the Brussels talks, that the proposal had German and British support.

The United Nations warned Tuesday that Myanmar faced a "second catastrophe" after its devastating cyclone, unless the junta immediately allows massive air and sea deliveries of aid.

But Myanmar's military rulers again rejected growing international pressure to open the door to a foreign-run relief effort, insisting against all the evidence that they could handle the emergency alone.

The junta said that the needs of the people after the storm, which has left around 62,000 dead or missing since ripping through the southern Irrawaddy delta on May 3, "have been fulfilled to an extent."

The EU ministers encouraged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to "continue his efforts" and joined his call for states in the region, including China, India and in particular South East Asian nations "to do all they can to persuade the authorities of Myanmar to co-operate with the international community and to offer practical and logistic support to the UN-led relief work".

"I am going to appeal to the Burmese (Myanmar) authorities to be open-minded and more understanding," said Michel, before heading to Frankfurt and Bangkok en-route for Yangon.

However he told AFP that "here and now, my mission's chances of success are slight."

"There is not access to drinking water, the wells are contaminated so there is a major risk of diseases such as cholera," he said, adding that rice stocks were also destroyed.

An EU spokeswoman said the European Commission and member states had already pledged some 30 million euros in aid relief, but those attending the Brussels talks stressed that the problem was not collecting the aid but distributing it.

In London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband blasted Myanmar's ruling military junta, saying its "callous disregard" for the country's people was hampering the supply of aid to cyclone survivors.

Extraordinary Session of General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) – Development Element

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