Pentagon not warm to idea of Myanmar aid drop

Because it would take the ships several days to get to the Myanmar area, the Navy was sending some of the group's helicopters and troops ahead over land, the official said.

Officials said that although the military junta has not agreed to allow U.S. humanitarian assistance, it did ask for some other U.S. help -satellite pictures of the cyclone-devastated areas.

"They asked our defense attache at the embassy in Rangoon for some imagery and we provided it," said Marine Maj. Stuart Upton, a Pentagon spokesman.

Separately, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution urging humanitarian aid to Myanmar's people and asking Myanmar's government to remove restrictions on international aid groups.

Democratic Sen. John Kerry said in a statement that the cyclone "could be remembered as the moment when the United States and the world came to the aid of the Burmese people and made it clear that while we loathe the junta that has isolated Burma from the world and oppressed its citizens, we find common cause with the people of Burma and we will be there by their side at this difficult time."

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Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report.