In one of the strongest public condemnations of the autocratic regime by a senior diplomat in recent years, Jan Morris, the executive director of the World Food Programme, also said that in some border areas, home to repressed ethnic minorities, malnutrition rates exceeded 60%.
"The humanitarian issues are serious and getting worse," he said in Bangkok after a trip to Burma. "I made clear that the primary responsibility for making things better rests squarely with the government."
Many of the problems stemmed from the tight control the military regime exerts over the people, he said. "Agricultural and marketing policies, and restrictions on the movement of people, make it very difficult for many of those at risk to merely subsist."
As an example, Mr Morris described how in February the WFP put out to tender a contract for 5,500 tonnes of rice for North Rhakine state. But the three suppliers have so far managed to deliver only 430 tonnes, primarily because of red tape.
The lack of political will to feed the population is also demonstrated, according to Mr Morris, by the government's enthusiasm for exporting food such as rice and seafood to China, India and Thailand. He called for a radical overhaul of food supply policies.
"[Burma's] severe and wide-ranging hunger issues cannot be solved without fundamental changes that promote the ... wellbeing of the population, which is the preserve of the government," he said.
The government, which has cut off most of its links with the UN in the last year, had not appeared to listen to his concerns, Mr Morris claimed.
He said that the prime minister, Soe Win, did not engage in a dialogue during their meeting but appeared just to reiterate prepared statements. Mr Morris also highlighted that the WFP has, like all foreign organisations, had to pay a 10% tax on all goods and services, paid for in foreign currency - a surcharge his agency has not experienced in any other country. He said the government had agreed to lift this charge.
He stressed that the regime had not restricted the WFP's activities.
No one in the Burmese government was willing to discuss Mr Morris's statements yesterday.
Human rights activists welcomed Mr Morris's comments but said the emergency went well beyond food supply.
"There is also a health spending crisis," Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK told the Guardian. "Burma spends less on health than any other country. In 1990 the figure was about 1% of GDP. It is now about 0.3%. That contrasts with about 50% being spent on the military."
Debbie Stothard of the regional pressure group Altsean agreed.
"Mr Morris has added his voice to the growing chorus of voices that any giving of aid to Burma is not going to be effective without economic and political reform," she said.
Several Burmese ethnic minorities are critical of the extent of the WFP's operations in Burma, particularly in the Shan state.
A coalition of civil society groups last month condemned the agency's decision to double the size of one programme before the government had introduced any reforms, claiming it in effect legitimised the junta's repression.
