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Brown seeks UN summit on Burma aid
14.05.08
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Tory leader David Cameron has joined the Prime Minister in urging the Burmese regime to let more aid in to help those hit by the recent cyclone.
At Commons question time, Mr Brown said there had been an "improvement" in the number of relief planes being allowed in, but it was still "not good enough".
He said he was asking the UN to organise an emergency summit as Mr Cameron pressed him to set a deadline after which aid would be enforced.
Mr Brown said the situation touched "the whole conscience of the world," adding: "A natural disaster in Burma, by the actions of a despicable regime, has been turned into a ... man-made catastrophe as a result of their actions."
Mr Brown told Labour's Mohammad Sarwar (Glasgow Central) the key thing was to get aid to the people of Burma "as quickly as possible by the means available to us".
In the last few hours a British plane had arrived in Rangoon. Three others would arrive "very soon" and more planes were being sent in the next few days.
"The first plane will provide shelter for 45,000 and, in the next day or two, about 60 flights in total will have arrived in Rangoon.
"So there has been an improvement but it is not good enough.
"It is not good enough because the needs of the Burmese people are 1.5 million people who face famine or distress and it's not good enough because the regime is still preventing aid getting to the rest of the country."
Mr Brown said he has asked the UN to convene an emergency summit and Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown had gone to Asia to talk to ministers there about co-ordinating action.
