Pentagon not warm to idea of Myanmar aid drop

His comments came as the United States and other donor countries continued to wait for permission to enter with tons of assistance and disaster relief personnel to assess what the needs are and move toward distributing the aid. He and other U.S. officials on Thursday reiterated appeals for Myanmar to allow such access.

Among other countries considering air drops are France, whose foreign minister has suggested the possibility of forcing assistance into Myanmar, and Italy, officials said.

Air drops of aid in crisis situations without permission from the host government would be complicated, as international law is unsettled on the issue. Pentagon officials have said they are wary of such a scenario because it could be considered an invasion.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said this week that air drops could be allowed under the U.N.'s "responsibility to protect" mandate, which applies to civilians.

Luu said that concept was being discussed in Washington as well as by senior relief officials and diplomats who are now in Bangkok, Thailand, trying to coordinate the international response to the disaster.

Officials said there were several problems with air drops into an unpermissive environment, especially if there are no experts on the ground to monitor the distribution of aid. Desperate people could riot over the assistance and there is the possibility that security forces might confiscate it and keep it out of the hands of the needy, they said.

The government has reported more than 20,000 deaths and more than 40,000 missing from Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar, particularly the Irrawaddy River delta, last weekend. A U.S. diplomat said Wednesday that the death toll in the delta could exceed 100,000. The U.N. estimates that a million people have been left homeless.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military was stepping up preparations for a humanitarian mission to Myanmar, readying ships and Marines now in the region for a multinational exercise.

The U.S. Air Force moved more airplanes to a staging area in Thailand and the Navy was transporting Marines and helicopters into Thailand from an aviation combat element of the USS Essex expeditionary strike group. Ships were to move later Thursday, a defense official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The Navy and Marine Corps happened to have ships and thousands of service members in the Gulf of Thailand for a multinational exercise on humanitarian missions -an exercise that started Thursday.