Burma has failed to respond to a series of increasingly creative offers from the Pentagon to let the US military deliver aid to the country, it emerged on Friday, as the official death toll from the cyclone of a fortnight ago rose sharply to 78,000.

Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of US Pacific Command who travelled to Burma this week, told the Financial Times he had made several suggestions to the junta during his visit, including allowing Burmese military officers on to US navy ships and aircraft, but he was “disappointed” at not receiving any response.