CANBERRA—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.
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.
In Canberra, emotions boiled over during a protest outside the Burmese embassy when a woman threw a water bottle at a car heading into the compound.
The protesters were rallying against a constitutional referendum the junta will hold in Burma tomorrow despite the devastating effects of the cyclone.
They also laid wreaths and lit candles for the victims of the cyclone.
Police became involved in a scuffle with the protesters when they crossed the picket line to arrest the bottle-throwing woman. She was released later with a caution.
Three women claimed they were injured in the ensuing melee, including Mee Oung, a registered nurse from Melbourne.
Ms Oung complained the police were not sympathetic towards the protesters, many of who had not seen their families in Burma for 20 years.
She has not been able to get in contact with her family since the cyclone struck.
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."
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