(STRASBOURG) - European Union aid chief Louis Michel on Wednesday deplored Myanmar's refusal to allow in full-scale international aid after a visit to the cyclone-hit nation.

"I have the feeling that there is a total distrust of the international community," the EU's humanitarian aid commissioner told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, days after returning from a trip to Yangon.

"You sometimes get the impression (...) of being in a dialogue of the deaf. It's extremely difficult to reach the person in front of you," he added, calling his trip "extremely frustrating."

He said he had asked Myanmar officials why they refused to open up to international aid following the massive storm on May 3 which has left at least 133,000 people dead or missing in the country's worst natural disaster ever.

Michel said the response from one interlocutor, despite the risks of famine and epidemic, was that "there are questions which do not justify an answer."

"I was disappointed not to see more concrete things happening. I cannot conceal that I was pretty happy to get back to Europe," he said.

Nevertheless Michel repeated his opposition to dropping international aid without permission from the Myanmar junta, an option proposed by France.

"An approach which is seen to impose international humanitarian aid on the Myanmar authorities seems to me, given the means which we have at our disposal today, bound to fail and perhaps be counterproductive," Michel warned.

"Nobody knows how to impose aid, but we do need to impose pressure, even pressure which envisages some kind of military hand to bring aid," replied Green euro deputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit, dismissing Michel's approach.

Dutch Liberal MEP Jules Maaten was equally keen to get aid in, regardless of the wishes of the Myanmar regime.

"The Burmese population must receive aid now, with or without the authorisation of the junta. The witholding of aid for its own people is a crime against humanity. The junta belongs behind bars," he argued.

Cyclone Nargis wiped out vast swathes of the Irrawaddy Delta, leaving vital rice paddies in ruins and washing away entire villages.

Myanmar, formerly British Burma and once one of the world's major exporters of rice, has been run by the iron hand of the military since 1962.

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