The US intensified diplomatic efforts yesterday to persuade Burma’s ruling junta to accept international offers of help in tackling the country’s humanitarian crisis. Washington entered into some of the most high-level discussions that it has conducted with Burmese officials in decades.

But although a US military flight landed in Burma carrying provisions for the survivors of cyclone Nargis, the flow of emergency supplies remained at a trickle for the 1.5m people facing hunger and disease in the ravaged Irrawaddy delta.

In New York, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, said only a 10th of the food vital to the survival of those affected by the cyclone had so far reached Burma and rice stocks in the country were close to exhaustion.

Expressing his frustration with the junta, he said: “We are at a critical point. Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today’s current crisis.

“I call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar [Burma] to put its people’s lives first. It must do all it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious.”

Mr Ban said Senior General Than Shwe, the junta leader, had failed to take his repeated urgent calls to request Burmese co-operation with the international community.

“I was not able to reach him and so delivered a letter . . . through diplomatic channels,” he said.

There were fresh signs, however, that the Burmese junta was prepared to consider international offers of help after a US admiral met his Burmese counterpart in the highest-level military talks between the two countries in decades.

Admiral Timothy J. Keating, the head of the US Pacific Command, and Henrietta Fore, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, arrived in Rangoon on a US military C-130 aircraft that was carrying supplies of water, blankets and mosquito nets for cyclone survivors.

Both US officials then held what were described as “cordial” talks with Vice-Admiral Soe Thein, the Burmese naval chief, discussing relief work and the potential of US military forces to help.

The US has offered to deploy up to 4,000 marines, six C-130 cargo aircraft and a large number of heavy-lift helicopters in what would be its largest disaster relief effort since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

It will also have three naval ships, with helicopters on board, positioned off south-west Burma within 48 hours.

“We have a broad array of personnel and equipment and we are ready to respond as soon as the Burmese give us permission,” said Adml Keating, adding that the officials said they would “take it under consideration”.

The Burmese regime cleared two more US C-130 relief flights to arrive today, and Ms Fore expressed hope for deepening co-operation as time passes.