Baron Levene of Portsoken's 45-year career has been a procession of glittering achievements. The son of an antique dealer from north-west London, Peter Levene has been adviser to one Prime Minister and a number of senior government figures. And such is his unalloyed reputation among City grandees that the 66-year-old Chelsea fan became Lord Mayor of London in 1998.

Since 2000 he has chaired Lloyd's of London - the most important job in the insurance industry. By rights, he should now be retiring after nearly completing two terms at Lloyd's, but legislation is currently going through parliament to allow him to extend his tenure.

This weekend, however, Levene's burnished reputation has been called into question by a growing coalition of senior politicians spanning the political divide. They argue that Levene is in the unfortunate position of being one of the most important Western business figures enabling the repressive Burmese military dictatorship to cling on to power.

Levene has long faced criticism at Lloyd's for failing to rebuke those of its syndicates that share the reinsurance risk on key aviation and shipping interests owned by the junta. The insurance in effect means Burma can trade with the outside world. The Foreign Office took the unusual step last month of writing to Levene reminding him of the UK government's official position of discouraging business with the country.

But Levene is also a director at Total, the French energy giant that has signed agreements with Burma to extract gas and oil there - agreements thought to benefit the Burmese generals to the tune of $2.66m each day.

Levene's two roles means he is a leading force within the two most important Western firms doing business in Burma; this despite calls from the pro-democracy movement for all foreign businesses to cease trading with the regime.

John Bercow, the Conservative MP who is chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for democracy in Burma, said: 'By its massive investment in Burma, Total props up one of the most barbaric dictatorships in the world and this is to its eternal discredit. It is therefore a great sadness that Lord Levene, a businessman of distinction who could doubtless have his pick of commercial opportunities, has sullied himself by becoming a director of this company.'

Labour MEP Glenys Kinnock called on Levene to resign from Total. She says: 'If he searches his conscience he must conclude that he should discontinue his position with the company or use his position to secure Total's withdrawal from a country currently ruled by evil. This revelation again confirms that businesses are continuing to put profit before people and proves the need for targeted EU sanctions, which we in the European parliament have consistently demanded.'

In a terse statement, Levene said he was not considering resigning from Total, where earlier this year he was reappointed for another three-year term. He stated that his directorship at Total did not 'sully' his reputation or affect his views on issuing guidance to Lloyd's managing agents and brokers dealing with Burma. And he rejected the argument that revenues from oil and gas, as well as Lloyd's reinsurance of key infrastructure owned by the Burmese junta, help it retain power. 'There is no evidence to support this,' he said. He refused to discuss whether Lloyd's had any insurance business with Total.

But, speaking to The Observer, Maung Maung, the Burmese union leader regarded as the likely Prime Minister if the south east Asian nation overthrows military rule, warned that Lloyd's could eventually be prosecuted for possible complicity in human rights abuses associated with the brutal regime. 'Lord Levene should advise Lloyd's to stop all Burma's insurance being marketed with and at Lloyd's... Lord Levene should also note and inform Lloyd's that cases on crimes against humanities are being built up to be applied at the International Criminal Court as well as some countries that practise international jurisdiction.'

Lloyd's insiders say the drive to impose sanctions against Burma, supported by detained pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is not supported by all campaign groups and that some Europeans believe engagement with the country helps the people of Burma.

But Johnny Chatterton, campaign director at Burma Campaign UK, said this was a minority view argued by those with business interests there. 'This link poses yet more awkward questions for Lloyd's,' Chatterton says. 'Does Total insure its Burma operations through Lloyd's? Was Levene present when Total's board discussed Burma? The reputation of the entire Lloyd's market has been dragged through the mud by being associated with Burma's murderous dictatorship. Lloyd's must clean up their act now or they will be associated with Burma in the same way that Barclays was with apartheid South Africa.'

The Burmese people have endured a horrific year as the violent repression of an uprising led by Buddhist monks was followed by Cyclone Nargis, which is thought to have claimed well over 100,000 lives. While Levene, Total and Lloyd's continue to profit from doing business with Burma, they must hope that its people have short memories when and if democracy is restored.

Burmese editor Zaw Thet Htwe has been arrested for helping to distribute food and clothes to people affected by the cyclone. Banned by government censors from writing about the tragedy in his magazine, Love Journal, he decided to act instead. But his wife, fellow journalist Ma Khine Cho, told an exile radio station he was detained by military police and their Rangoon home was searched.

In 2003, Zaw Thet Htwe was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death on a charge of high treason. The supreme court commuted his sentence to three years in prison and he was released in 2005. At least eight journalists and one blogger are currently in prison in Burma. (Via Reporters without borders)

The UN is to launch a massive programme to combat dengue fever in Burma amid fears that victims of the deadly cyclone could be more vulnerable to the disease.

Hundreds of volunteers will fan out across high-risk areas of the main city, Rangoon, and the Irrawaddy delta from tomorrow to tackle the mosquitoes that carry the disease, which is known as "break-bone fever" because of the joint pain it causes.

The target of the dengue taskforce will be the mosquito larvae that breed in pools of standing water during the monsoon, which started just as Cyclone Nargis struck more than six weeks ago.

The UN estimates 134,000 people were killed by the fierce winds and accompanying storm surge from the Bay of Bengal that washed over low-lying areas of the delta, which is home to up to 2.4 million.

After a faltering international response to the tragedy, during which the country's military regime barred most disaster management experts, aid agencies say they have now reached 1.3 million victims.

The Burmese authorities continue to show their suspicion, arresting their own citizens who tried to deliver aid. At the weekend, Zaw Thet Htway, a prominent government critic, was seized as he distributed relief to survivors.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN children's agency are taking the lead in tackling the threat of dengue, which is endemic in Burma even in a normal year.

Leonard Ortega, the WHO's dengue expert in Burma, said the number of cases discovered this year roughly mirrored that of other years, with 781 recorded in Rangoon and 481 in the delta.

But now is the danger period. After the cyclone and the onset of the monsoon, it takes a number of weeks for the mosquitoes to start breeding in the pools.

"It is a major concern not just because this is dengue season, but because of the displacement of the population, the destruction of houses and because people are more exposed to mosquitoes," said Ortega said. "We fear that there will be more cases this year."

Tonnes of pesticide are to be added to water containers where mosquitoes are likely to breed as part of the aid operation, which will begin in Rangoon before spreading out across the delta over the next ten days.

Up to 1,700 volunteers from the Burma Red Cross and other organisations will visit the delta, laying the pesticide and advising people to dispose of old tyres, cans and bottles where water can gather.

The WHO has provided 200 "fogging" machines that spread pesticide in places where dengue cases have been reported. The fumes can kill adult mosquitoes, but not the larvae.

The Burmese regime today accused the international media of fabricating stories about the aftermath of the deadly cyclone to tarnish the country's image around the world.

It denounced foreign news organisations and accused them of exaggerating and distorting accounts of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis almost five weeks ago.

The government mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar daily newspaper, accused foreign media of misleading the international community to make it appear the regime had done little to help the survivors.

Burma's secretive military government, which has maintained an iron grip on power for 46 years, has gone to extraordinary lengths to give the impression that it is able to care for the estimated 2.4 million survivors.

But Burma's generals have come in for a barrage of criticism from the international community for their failure to allow disaster relief experts into the worst hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta where most of the estimated 134,000 casualties died.

The clampdown that also kept the media out of the delta failed to stop reports of the dire conditions getting out. Among the most graphic images that emerged are on video shot by Burmese amateurs and made into lurid DVDs on sale in the main city, Rangoon.

The New Light of Myanmar accused "self-seekers and unscrupulous elements" of colluding with the international media to invent stories about the survivors of the cyclone.

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar and misleading the international community into believing that cyclone victims do not receive any assistance," the newspaper said.

"The people who are in touch with the situation feel that the despicable and inhumane acts by local and foreign anti-government groups and self-centred persons and their exploiting of the storm victims are absolutely obnoxious."

The UN believes it will need to import food aid for Burma for up to a year to feed survivors of the cyclone that wrought havoc on the Irrawaddy delta.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) fears it is likely that rice crop due for planting now and over the coming weeks will fall far short of Burma's needs because of the damage to land and seeds, and the loss of farm animals.

Alarm over Burma's food security was raised as the international community's relief efforts for the 2.4 million affected by Cyclone Nargis continued to be hampered by the regime's foot-dragging over permission for 10 WFP helicopters to fly relief missions to cut-off areas.

The US decided to pull out four warships packed with relief supplies that have been stationed just off the coast in the Bay of Bengal for more than three weeks after the Burmese regime rejected offers of help.

Admiral Timothy Keating, head of US Pacific command, said the Burmese refused 15 separate pleas for authorisation to use 22 heavy-lift helicopters and amphibious landing craft to bring water, food, shelter materials and medical supplies into the stricken corners of the delta.

Even now international relief teams working for the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) are discovering remote villages deep in the delta that have received no assistance more than a month after the cylone killed an estimated 134,000 people.

"In the last day in the field we were seeing spots of 15 to 20 households who had not received any aid," said Frank Smithuis, Burma country director for MSF. "If we see communities that have received little or no aid then they emergency phase is clearly not over."

But as aid agencies battle to cope with the immediate disaster that has left 1.3 million survivors still with insufficient relief, they are also concerned about the future. 65% of Burma's rice was grown in the delta, giving the country a tiny surplus for export.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 200,000 hectares - 16% of the delta rice paddy - has been damaged by seawater and will be out of commission for the coming harvest. Many farmers were killed or driven from their land.

"The losses to the rice production of rice in this area are very deep and very specific," said Paul Risley, a WFP spokesman. "It's likely this harvest will not be able to take place. So it is very catastrophic from that point of view. But certainly over a longer period of six months to twelve months there will be a need to import rice which was grown in the delta area."

A small number of foreign aid workers were today authorised to travel from Rangoon to the Irrawaddy delta to bring emergency aid to the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, despite Burma's promise of unfettered access.

The slow process has so delayed the relief response that the UN says 1.3 million survivors of the cyclone, which killed an estimated 134,000 people, are not receiving sufficient food and shelter.

The UN world food programme (WFP) was given permission to use 10 helicopters to fly aid to remote areas of the delta. But only one aircraft had received clearance and that was to fly just one mission.

No international staff had been allowed to be deployed to the relief agency's three warehouses in the delta's worst-hit areas, although permission for a sole expert finally arrived today.

"There's movement, but much less than we'd like," said Paul Risley, a WFP spokesman.

"We got permission for one of our international staff to go to the Bogalay township. That will be the first. Others have been able to visit a food distribution hub for the day. But there are 32 international staff in Rangoon we'd like to deploy to do their jobs in the delta."

After almost a fortnight waiting, the International Red Cross eventually got authorisation today for six foreign experts to set up fresh water and sanitation units in the delta, though their permits last just a week.

"This is good, but it's not enough," said France Hurtubise, a spokeswoman.

"We're happy, but not joyful. Six people are just not enough. A month after the 2004 tsunami, we had 300 international staff working across all the affected countries."