UK opposition leader calls for Burma aid to be dispatched by air if access for aid workers does not improve

David Cameron, the leader of the main UK opposition party, the Conservative Party, has said that aid to Burma should be dispatched by air if the Burmese government does not improve access to the country for aid workers.

David Cameron said this in a statement, which was released today. Below is part of the statement:

However David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary and Labour Party member, told the BBC's Politics Show yesterday that air delivery is "not a very effective way of delivering aid" and that "humanitarian experts and aid workers who make all the difference on the ground are clear that that is very much the third, fourth, fifth or even sixth best solution."

Nick Clegg, leader of Britain's second largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, took Cameron's side however, saying that the international community ought to support direct aid-dropping "to show that we mean business".

22,464 people have been confirmed dead from Cyclone Nargis, with the majority of the casualties having taken place in Burma. Only once rescue workers reached the hardest hit areas of the storm did they begin to realize the extent of damage that had occurred. At least 10,000 people died in one town alone, Bogalay in the Pyapon District of the country.

The United Nations has reported that one million people are homeless, or in need of help in some other way.