UN blasts Myanmar for visa policy on aid workers

But there was no sign the junta was relenting.

"Currently Myanmar has prioritized receiving emergency relief provisions and making strenuous effort delivering it with its own labor to the affected areas," said the junta statement, carried in the state-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The announcement came as critical aid and experts to go with it were poised in neighboring Thailand and elsewhere to rush into Myanmar, one of the world's poorest nations.

"Believe me the government will not allow outsiders to go into the devastated area. The government only cares about its own stability. They don't care about the plight of the people," said Yangon food shop owner Joseph Kyaw, one of many residents angry at the regime for doing little to help them recover from the storm's destruction.

Among those waiting in Thailand were members of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team. Air Force transport planes and helicopters packed with supplies also sat waiting for a green light to enter Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"We are in a long line of nations who are ready, willing and able to help, but also, of course, in a long line of nations the Burmese don't trust," U.S. Ambassador Eric John told reporters in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, on Thursday.

Myanmar allowed the first major international aid shipment Thursday -four U.N. planes carrying high-energy biscuits, including one which was apparently turned back. On Friday, state-owned television showed a cargo plane from Italy with water containers, food and plastic sheets at Yangon international airport.

Two of four U.N. experts who flew in to assess the damage were turned back at the airport for unknown reasons, but the other two were allowed to enter, said John Holmes, the U.N. relief coordinator.

It is not clear how much of the aid is reaching the Irrawaddy delta, where entire villages have been submerged with bodies floating in salty water and children ripped from their parents' arms.

The U.N. estimated that more than 1 million people have been left homeless.