Australia will try to use its regional clout to apply pressure on Burma to abandon its "obscene" decision to block international aid being offered to help cyclone victims.

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will ask China and the members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to use their influence with Burma to get it to accept outside help after Cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc on the south of the country.

United States offers of military assistance have been rejected and even United Nations crisis assessment workers have been turned back.

"The Burmese regime is behaving appallingly," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio Network.

Burma's reclusive military generals remain reluctant to accept international assistance as the poverty-stricken country struggles to cope with the aftermath.

The military junta is only willing to accept emergency relief provisions, which it plans to distribute through its own resources.

About 100,000 people are feared to have been killed by the cyclone and now there are concerns that disease and lack of water could claim more lives.

There is growing condemnation of the delays relief workers are facing to get into Burma because of hurdles in the visa process.

As part of his plan to garner international support to pressure Burma, Mr Rudd intends to speak to United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon this weekend.

"We will deal with all of our global and regional partners to maximise the leverage on the Burmese because the people of Burma don't deserve this," Mr Rudd said.

"You've got the international community lined up ready to help ... all being frustrated by the regime itself."

Mr Rudd said it was an obscenity that the Burmese people were suffering because the regime refused to open the country up to the international community.

The United Nations said Burma's refusal to grant visas to relief experts desperate to help cyclone victims was "unprecedented" in the history of humanitarian work.

Many relief workers are on standby in Bangkok nearly a week after the cyclone but face further delays because Burmese officials have taken a local holiday.

Protest in Canberra

Angry and frustrated, dozens of Burmese Australians clashed with police outside Burma's Embassy, protesting against the government's delay in allowing aid flow-in to the cyclone-ravaged country.

Witnesses say police charged through the group of protesters.

A woman says she was injured in the clash.

"They just pushed me away and twisted my hand and then they pushed my chest and I hit my head," she said.

The protests were also aimed at calling on Burmese authorities to delay tomorrow's constitutional referendum, and put aid before politics.

"Oh, it's terrible, it's frustrating. Even before the disaster, our people have already suffered enough," Siri Mon Chan said.

Australia has so far committed $3 million for humanitarian assistance, which will go to aid organisations and the UN.

The federal opposition has criticised the sum being donated by the Rudd government, saying it's a pittance compared to the $1 billion Australia offered Indonesia in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer labelled the amount pathetic.

"As the most significant developed country in the South-East Asian region, Australia should be taking the lead on providing aid to Burma and persuading the junta to allow international aid agencies to assist that country," Mr Downer said.

"The Australian government has offered $3 million to assist 1.5 million people who have been displaced and the families of an estimated 100,000 dead. That is just pathetic."

Australian aid agencies on stand-by

Australian aid workers have joined international colleagues on the waiting list to be get Burmese visas.

Medecins Sans Frontiers has begun distributing aid, but at least twenty doctors and nurses, including nine Australians, are still waiting for the visas.

James Nichols, from Medicines Sans Frontieres says it’a very frustrating situation.

“In places like Bogalay and Basane, there's 95 % destruction of homes and infrastructure"

While the current situation is critical, agriculture experts warn Cyclone Nargis could leave Burma with massive food shortages.

Much of the country's high-yielding rice cropping regions have been destroyed.

May experts warn that the bulk of the Burmese population rely totally on rice as their staple food.

And replanting the vital crop will take years.

But getting much-needed aid is still the top priority.