EU urges cyclone-hit Myanmar to allow aid in

BRUSSELS, May 13 (Reuters) - The European Union urged Myanmar's military junta on Tuesday to allow aid and aid workers to the 1.5 million people facing hunger and disease in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis, diplomats said.

The statement agreed by EU development ministers at an emergency meeting supported other humanitarian initiatives that could be taken in the United Nations framework, but stopped short of endorsing France's call for the world to deliver aid without the reluctant military junta's agreement, they said.

France, Britain and Germany, called for the U.N. principle of the "responsibility to protect" to be invoked to force aid into Myanmar if necessary, France's junior minister for human rights Rama Yade said earlier on Tuesday. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander and Yves Clarisse; Editing by Paul Taylor)