Costello pushes Burma to open borders

World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello hopes to convince Burma's leaders to open the country's borders to a massive international cyclone recovery effort.

Mr Costello on Thursday toured the storm-ravaged suburbs of Rangoon and will on Friday head to the devastated Irrawaddy delta to examine the impact of Cyclone Nargis, which swept across southern Burma on Saturday.

Estimates suggest up to 100,000 Burmese may have perished.

The reported cancellation of a US aid flight is a bodyblow to the Burma cyclone relief effort, Mr Costello said.

Mr Costello hoped meetings on Friday with Burmese government ministers would convince the government that international aid agencies would not enter the country with a political agenda.

He said he understood Burmese fears foreigners may enter Burma with a political axe to grind, particularly in the lead-up to the planned constitutional referendum on Saturday.

"All I can do is keep on reassuring them that this is purely humanitarian, no political axe to grind, no political motivations, people's lives, their own citizens' lives are at stake; and keep saying that we therefore need to get in the best people with the right skills to do this job," he said.

Australian Red Cross workers already based in Burma were in the field in devastated areas in Burma's south on Thursday, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has described as counter-productive France's call for mandated international action to get aid into Burma.

Australia has already pledged $3 million in aid but is considering boosting assistance in the longer term, Mr Smith said.

The job at hand was to get aid pledged from nations around the world into Burma, he said.

Talk of mandated international action would only serve to inflame the situation, he said.

"What we can't afford is to run the risk of the regime becoming even more insular," he said.

"So I think in the first instance it has got to be argument, diplomatic argument - there are some nation states who continue to have a good dialogue with the regime."