India says it gave Myanmar 48-hour cyclone warning

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian meteorologists have said they had given neighbouring Myanmar 48 hours' warning before a cyclone slammed into the country, killing more than 22,000 people and leaving over 40,000 missing.

The comments from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) came amid US allegations that Myanmar's military junta failed to warn its citizens of the impending storm.

"Forty-eight hours before (tropical cyclone) Nargis struck, we indicated its point of crossing (landfall), its severity and all related issues to Myanmarese agencies," IMD spokesman B.P. Yadav told AFP Tuesday.

The department is mandated by the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation to track cyclones in the region.

"Our job is to give warnings and in advance, and we take pride in saying that we gave warnings much, much in advance and there was enough time to take precautionary measures such as evacuation," he added.

He said that, starting in late April, the weather department was issuing regular advisories to Myanmar and other South and Southeast Asian countries that the cyclone was brewing in the Bay of Bengal.

"Way back on April 26, we told them a cyclone was coming," Yadav said, referring to general warnings of a growing storm.

The IMD's 41st and final advisory about the status of the storm was issued on Saturday, just after the cyclone hit land.

US First Lady Laura Bush on Monday accused Myanmar's military regime of failing to take action to protect the remote part of the impoverished country from the storm.

"Although they were aware of the threat, Burma's state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path," she said, referring to Myanmar by its former name of Burma.

The IMD, which also alerted the World Meteorological Organisation, declined to comment on Bush's allegations.

New Delhi meanwhile readied two military cargo planes to transport eight tonnes of relief materials including medicines for the cyclone victims, airforce spokesman Mahesh Upasini told AFP.

"The two planes would fly to Yangon tomorrow and we are keeping an Ilyushin-76 (transport plane) on standby if it is required," he said as two Indian naval ships carrying hundreds of tonnes of aid neared Myanmarese waters.

"We thought it's best to react as quickly as we can," naval spokesman commander Nirad Sinha said as the warships ferried medicines, clothing, blankets and grain for the cyclone victims.

"We have put our ships on standby and it's now a government decision (to send more relief)," Sinha said as New Delhi reiterated offers to extend more help to Myanmar.

"The Indian leadership has sent messages of condolences and Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) has conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Myanmar and announced Indias readiness to assist Myanmar in their relief efforts," foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.

He said Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had also "conveyed Indias readiness to provide relief and emergency assistance to help Myanmar cope with this calamity."

International aid agencies, which are still waiting for visas to enter the country four days after the storm, said delivering aid to such a remote region was posing a major challenge.

Most of the 22,000 cyclone victims in Myanmar were killed in the Irrawaddy river delta, a remote but densely populated region of malarial swampland that is hard to reach at the best of times, experts say.

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