For Burma’s normally reclusive military rulers, resented by their own citizens and mistrustful of the outside world’s intentions, the devastation wrought by tropical cyclone Nargis has posed an uncomfortable dilemma at a sensitive political moment.

With the numbers of dead and missing now exceeding 60,000, the generals – still skittish after their suppression of anti-government protests in September – have dropped their usual mantra of self-reliance and admitted they need international help.