Cameron: 'The world has failed Burma's people'

Thousands of people in Burma could die from disease and starvation and because of a "rising tide of global indifference", David Cameron warns today. The Conservative leader urges Gordon Brown to make a personal appeal to China's premier, Wen Jiabao, to put pressure on Rangoon to allow direct delivery of aid.

Writing today in The Independent on Sunday to mark one month since Cyclone Nargis hit the country, Mr Cameron says Burmese generals should be threatened with the International Criminal Court for hindering relief efforts. "If many more people die at this stage, it will not be because of Mother Nature," he writes. "It will be because of the criminal negligence of the Burmese regime, and because the world – despite its fine words and grand meetings – will have failed the Burmese people in their hour of need."

The Tory leader says the world risks forgetting about Burma because the country has "slammed the door shut", forcing the disaster down the news agenda.