May 17 (Bloomberg) -- China is backing Myanmar as it resists pressure from the U.S. and other nations to admit more relief workers and supplies to help as many as 2.5 million cyclone victims at risk of disease and hunger.

Other countries must show ``due respect'' to Myanmar, said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, at a briefing yesterday. ``Myanmar is a sovereign country. In the end, rescue and relief work will have to rely on the Myanmar government and people.''

Wang's comment was the clearest response yet to international pleas urging the neighboring country to open its doors wider to help. China may resent Western interference so close to home, particularly in Myanmar, which is poised to become a major supplier of energy to the Chinese economy, analysts say.

Cyclone Nargis may have left as many as a half-million children in Myanmar in need of help, according to the Christian charity World Vision. Since the storm struck on May 3, the regime has barred most foreign relief workers, rejected offers of helicopters and boats, and accepted only a trickle of the aid offered by the world.

Wang spoke at a news conference about China's own natural disaster, a May 12 earthquake that killed more than 22,000 people.

More Flights

Four more U.S. C-130 cargo planes landed in the Myanmar city of Yangon yesterday, and the contents of two of them were handed to charities instead of the regime, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in Washington. He said it was the first time the U.S. has been able to ensure that aid has gone directly to international humanitarian groups in the country, formerly known as Burma.

At least four more U.S. relief flights are planned for today and tomorrow, McCormack said. About 10 Red Cross planes have arrived in the past week, with supplies distributed by locals.

United Nations emergency-relief coordinator John Holmes, who is due to arrive in Myanmar tomorrow to help expedite aid delivery, said this week that between 1.6 million and 2.5 million people have been ``severely affected'' by the cyclone and need help. The death toll from the storm has reached almost 78,000, the Associated Press cited state television as saying. An additional 56,000 people are missing.

Travel Restrictions

The junta insists it can cope with the disaster itself and is stopping international relief workers from traveling from Yangon to the delta region struck by the cyclone, Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia, said by telephone from the former capital.

``They're very, very efficient at stopping'' aid workers, he said. ``If there was equal efficiency in delivering aid we'd be pleased.''

France's envoy to the UN said yesterday that the Myanmar government's resistance to delivery of aid is close to becoming criminal negligence that would allow for forceful intervention.

``We are shifting from a situation of non-assistance to people in need to a situation that could lead to a true crime against humanity if we go on like that,'' Ambassador Jean- Maurice Ripert told reporters after a meeting of the UN General Assembly. ``The time is no more for academic quarrels. People are dying every day. We want action.''

Ripert said France will press for Security Council action next week.

U.S. Stance

The U.S. isn't endorsing measures beyond diplomatic efforts at persuading the regime to accept more help.

``We're going to keep working the politics of this in the hopes that we can get more aid and, importantly, expertise down to those areas,'' McCormack said.

In a May 15 letter, 43 members of the U.S. House of Representatives asked President George W. Bush to support efforts by France and other nations to seek greater access to the disaster-hit area and to consider a humanitarian intervention, Agence France-Presse reported today.

The military regime today took a group of foreign diplomats on a tour of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy River delta, AFP said, citing an unidentified diplomat. It's the first organized tour since the cyclone struck, the report said, without elaborating.

The cyclone is the worst natural disaster to hit Southeast Asia since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 220,000 people.

China's view on international involvement in disaster relief is rooted in its historical experience, according to one analyst.

``China would never endorse a precedent of someone flying or sailing into someone else's country, no matter how good the intentions,'' said Richard Cronin, head of the Asian Political Economy program at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington. ``Memories of Europeans walking in and taking Chinese territory in the 19th century are very much alive.''

Natural Gas

In December, China won the rights to buy natural gas from Myanmar's biggest field, beating out India.

``Myanmar is part of China's strategy to become less dependent on oil'' transported on a lengthy route through the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, Cronin said.

China helped block French and U.S.-led efforts to discuss Myanmar's resistance to granting visas to aid workers last week in the UN Security Council. In 2006 and 2007, China opposed efforts to discuss the Myanmar crackdown on political opponents in the council.

Foreign ministers representing the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Thailand and Myanmar, are meeting next week in Singapore to discuss ways to get more assistance into the devastated areas. The group will have to overcome internal divisions that have prevented it from taking a tougher line against the Myanmar regime on human rights abuses.

`Defining Moment'

While Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan on May 14 called the response to the catastrophe a ``defining moment'' for the organization, Singapore's ambassador to the U.S., Chan Heng Chee, cautioned that the issue will be difficult.

``Myanmar should not be made the litmus test of the effectiveness of Asean,'' she told an audience of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, where Pitsuwan was speaking.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been among the most vocal world leaders in criticizing Myanmar's rulers. Brown told Parliament on May 14 that the regime was fomenting ``a man-made catastrophe'' and urged it to open its borders to aid.

Brown resisted calls from the opposition Conservatives to set a deadline for invoking the UN's ``responsibility to protect'' clause, citing private aid groups who said air- dropping relief would be ineffective and a ``distraction.''

China Welcomed Workers

In coping with its own disaster, China has welcomed foreign teams of relief workers, which have come from nearby countries such as Russia, Singapore and Japan, Wang said.

In Myanmar, donated food, water and supplies have been accepted, with the provision that the military distribute them in almost all cases.

``International aid workers need unrestricted access to the disaster area and have to be able to work unhindered,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said this week. ``We're asking the government of Myanmar to finally ensure this to the fullest extent.''

The first German flight reached Yangon on May 15, carrying six water-purification systems that can supply 40,000 people daily.

About 30 medical workers from Thailand arrived in Myanmar today, along with $230,000 of supplies, AFP reported, citing Prat Boonyawongvirot, permanent secretary at the health ministry. They are part of a group of more than 100 medics from Asian nations that the junta has allowed into Myanmar.

A French naval vessel loaded with 1,500 tons of food, shelter and medicine is set to arrive today off Myanmar's coast and would have the small boats and helicopters deliver aid with or without the government's agreement, Ripert said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 17, 2008 00:34 EDT