Malaysia presses Myanmar to allow ASEAN militaries help the cyclone-devastated country

(Associated Press WorldStream Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SINGAPORE_Malaysia urged Myanmar's junta Sunday to let Southeast Asian militaries help deliver aid to cyclone victims, an unprecedented plea for foreign intervention in a region where nations generally stay out of each other's affairs.

The appeal by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak at an international security conference came after Myanmar's Deputy Defense Minister Aye Myint used the forum to claim that his government acted promptly to provide relief in the aftermath of the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis.

But Najib said the tragedy was of such a huge scale that the toll could surpass that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Indonesia, where about 167,000 people died.

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