Almost a week after Asia's most devastating cyclone for 17 years, tonnes of emergency aid for Burma are waiting on relief planes parked in nearby countries while the country's military rulers stall and bicker over letting in foreign aid. At least 20,000 people are known to have died, with a further 60,000 missing and presumed dead. Most aid agencies believe that the death toll will soon reach 100,000. If food and clean water do not reach the Irrawaddy delta soon, thousands more will die. And unless the bloated corpses, now putrefying in the heat and mud, are swiftly buried, disease could double the number of casualties.

The junta's criminal failure to warn the vulnerable population of the approaching cyclone has been compounded by its refusal to order Burma's needlessly large army into action to help the victims. With at least 400,000 people in the armed forces - four times the size of the British Army - Burma can easily mobilise the man- power needed for the essential task of rescuing survivors, clearing roads, distributing food and burying the dead. It has refused to do so. Last September, troops were swiftly deployed to raid the monasteries, arrest protesters and beat up anyone venturing on the streets during the monks' demonstrations against the regime. As we report today, there is the strongest of suspicions that what is happening in Burma is not just incompetence or indifference but the calculated decision that it is more important for the leadership to preserve its isolation than to save lives.

There are few effective levers to force the ill-named State Peace and Development Council to accept help ferried in by American C130 planes, issue visas to experienced Western disaster officials or allow access to the devastated villages swamped by Saturday's deadly tidal surge. To denounce the junta for stalling, for keeping aid and United Nations teams waiting on the border despite an initial appeal for help may ease international frustrations; it will not help those now dying from injuries, disease and hunger. The junta will only be reinforced in its conviction that the outside world will exploit any opportunity to stir popular opposition to its rule - a sad record of decline since the military seized power in 1962.

The UN is also right to be wary of suggestions simply to dump the aid and take off. Without experts in disaster logistics and impartial outsiders to prevent looting or misuse, little of the international airlift of food and medicines would find its way to those people most in need. But there is a potential way through. China, Burma's closest overseas supporter, has already urged the junta to accept foreign assistance and yesterday announced a further big tranche of emergency support. The Chinese may be acting in obvious self-interest, to counter damaging pre-Olympic publicity over Tibet and Darfur; but at least they have some influence on the secretive generals. If a lifeline can be established through China, the West should not hesitate to use it, sending aid via Beijing. What matters is not the flag on the food carton but the vital resources inside.

The junta may soon be forced to act more responsibly by the threat to its own authority. Already, the population is turning to the monasteries for the help that should come from the Government. The junta, whose misrule has reduced one of Asia's richest countries on independence to one of its poorest, may face food riots as the rice supply fails. If only to save itself from future disaster, it should throw open its doors to the world and rescue its suffering people.