Yangon: Myanmar's junta turned back a disaster rescue team from Qatar because the flight only had permission to deliver aid supplies, an official paper said on Friday.

"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment," the government-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported, adding that the junta is receiving and distributing aid "with its own resources".

The Qatar plane was one of 12 international relief flights that landed in the former capital on Thursday, the paper said.

International frustration is mounting at delays by the generals in giving visas to aid workers and landing rights for flights, including those from the US military.

Experts say Myanmar is short of the massive relief operation needed for a disaster that has severely affected 1.5 million people and may have killed as many as 100,000.

The junta is holding a referendum on an army-drafted constitution on Saturday, and opponents have suggested the delays are because it does not want an influx of foreigners before the vote.

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